


Same Yet Wildly Different

by Tessa_Grey



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: "If you get killed walk it off", Canon Compliant, Everyone Lives/No One Dies, F/M, I don't know how ao3 works, M/M, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rebirth, Telepathy, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Un-Important Background OCs, at least for now, no beta we die like men, no one stays dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 20:13:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19448710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tessa_Grey/pseuds/Tessa_Grey
Summary: [Time-Travel] Our heroes may have come from a future gone wrong, but they never planned to have a second chance. While they race against time to get a similar(yet wildly different) outcome of their lives, who says that behind closed doors, the Kohona 12 and a half can’t have more fun the second time around?Where (and when) everything goes about... 90% right, and everyone scrambles to improvise to create the last 10%, chaos ensues.





	1. Prologue

**Before we begin - a quick note to the readers. Hello, and welcome to my first attempt at writing on this platform! I've got great plans for this little baby, and I intend to see it all the way through. However, I do also have a life, and unless this story takes off in a way I currently don't expect it to, you can expect it to be updated once a month if we're all lucky. Another warning, this story is going to feature a large cast, (similar to the original Naruto), but rather than focus on the story of one, it will be split between all of the cast telling parts of the story between them. If you feel that a character isn't being given the proper focus, just let me know, and we'll work on that! Also - I intend to do my best to keep to canon, but I make no promises, and I absolutely will take my creative liberties in order to make the story flow better.**

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Alpha (Canon)

Those In On The Secret: N/A

Current Location: Ruined City (?)

Current POV: N/A

o - o - o - o

**Prologue**

_In which children steal and use a forbidden scroll_

The boy's short, spiky blonde hair whipped around his face as the 16-year-old ran what looked at first glance like a forest, with so many trees intertwined that they very nearly blocked off any sunlight reached the floor where the boy ran. The trees quite effectively cut off any escape upwards for the time being for the young blond as he ran down a once familiar trail, a scroll attached to his back. The teen had a determined look set deep on his face. The determination had set itself is his shockingly bright blue eyes, which stared at the now wooded path that he had once known like the back of his hand. The blond was moving quickly, yet still cautiously, making as little noise as he could each time he planted his feet into the mulch one the ground, a layer of dead and decaying leaves over what had once been a busy market street.

Behind him, the teen could faintly hear the sounds his pursuers were making, they were more concerned with catching him than masking their presence. The sounds, to his growing concern, were growing ever closer. He threw himself around a corner, making a left. As the faint sounds became individual footsteps, he threw more power into his run, wincing at the resounding crunch that now came with the contact of his foot pushing off against the crumbling leaves. His eyes swept the forest, but what he saw was totally different. His careful eyes picked up ruined street signs, long covered with leaves and vines, as well as empty buildings that had once been business he knew well. The boy was searching for a place to hide, or to make a diversion. This brightly covered jacket flapped in the wind at the speed he was reaching, a frown set on his face, looking out of place against the old smile marks that were set under the whisker marks on his face.

The boy could pick out individual voices now, a mix of unfamiliar and soul-crushingly familiar. He was running, perhaps faster than he'd ever run, making another left, but he still needed to be faster. He applied chakra to his feet, hoping to go ever just the little bit faster. He couldn't risk much - it would light up his location better than a signal flare if he used too much. In his haste, as the boy rounded the next corner, (another left), he cut it a little to close. With a loud rip (Which probably let everyone within 10 minutes know where he was, dangit) the magenta and black fabric of his left sleeve caught on what looked to be a destroyed hunk of something that had once been someone's roof. The traitorous fabric tore straight off at his elbow, entangling his hand and yanking the arm back with it. The force of that was just enough to throw his momentum in a different direction, and the blonde soon found himself flying face-first into the soil. He had just enough time to grabbed the strap that secured the scroll onto his back, so he was unable to break his fall. A small cry of pain (A resounding oof, but he'd deny that) escaped his person as his face dragged across the ground, the fabric of his pants ripping several places, the largest of which exposed his knees, and a handful of smaller rips appearing along his intact sleeve, which was shielding the scroll he had bet his life and future upon.

He considered just laying there in the dirt for a brief moment, but quickly shoved those thoughts to the side, and forced himself to his slightly shaking feet. He was breathing heavy, but he had almost reached where the wall had once stood, and once he got there he would have the advantage, he knew that terrain far better than his pursuers did. Suddenly, a voice cut still the silence that had formed itself rather than the sound of feet - both his and his tails, the teen realized too late. The voice was terrifyingly familiar, but the boy could swear that its true owner was dead - had been nearly 7 months now.

"Found him! Over Here!" The blond turned, a single tear forming in his right eye and sliding down his cheek, although he wasn't sure what it was for - fear, the stupid vain hope that the voice's owner was alive, or some strange mix of the two. He brushed it away with his left hand, now freed from the fabric it had been trapped it. He spared a glance at his left wrist, which was already beginning to swell, before turning around.

"Sensei?" His voice was gravelly, as though it might give way at any moment, but it held hints of once being high, especially for his age, and even now, you could hear the faintest tingle of a once ever-present laugh. He could hear reinforcements coming to their ally's call, and, catching sight of a too familiar face that he couldn't bear to see his enemy wear (not again, he was so sick of this) he slammed his eyes shut and attempted to continue fleeing away in the direction away from his Sensei (no no not his sensei, this was someone else, something was wearing his face, his sensei was dead), when he felt a sharp kick to the back of both his legs, and he was falling again. He fell onto a patch of asphalt he was sure had once been a road, now clear of leaves thanks to his previous fall. He could feel blood begin to creep down his right leg, the skin on his unprotected knee broken by the second fall. He had also taken a blow to his head and could feel the blood dribble from his mouth confirm that.

Still, the boy attempt to climb to his feet again, stopping only to quickly snatch the scroll from his back and into his arms to protect it when the man who looked like his sensei made a pass at it to grab it.

"Hand over the scroll." The look-alike of the blue-eyed teen's sensei demanded, towering over him as he panted in the dirt, curled around the scroll.

"I'm sure you know, Konohamaru-sensei, why I can't do that." The witty retort was barely out of his mouth when the older man lunged from where he stood, his blue scarf shifting around his neck due to the sharp movement, as he pulled out a kunai knife faster than the boy could go for his own, and true fear began to flash before his eyes, filling him from his head to his toe, freezing him in place, one hand wrapped around the scroll, the other reaching for his own kunai, albeit too slowly. There were more tears in his eyes now, and he knew why there were tears-

he shut his eyes-

_ohgodsI'mgoingtodieandeyeoneelsewilldietoobecauseIfailedand-_

"Boruto!" His eyes shot open again at the familiar clang of metal on metal, and the teen saw the pale bluish hair and even paler skin of his best friend. His hair was sloppily pulled back by the ever familiar hia-te, Boruto having forgone his own for the sake of this mission.

"Mitsuki! What are you-" The blonde began to address his friend.

"Go Boruto! There's no time!" The newcomer cut him off. As Boruto rose to his feet, he knew the other boy was right, he could hear the reinforcements called by his (former?) sensei coming. Once he was to his feet, he called out to his best friend.

"Alright, Mitsuki, let's blow this popsicle stand!" The blue-haired boy looked back, and Boruto felt like someone had dropped a rock into his gut.

"You go Boruto. I'll hold them off." Boruto saw a quiet acceptance in the golden, snake-like eyes of his best friend. The eyes which had once led them across the world for the sake of finding truths now betrayed the final decision their owner had made. In an instant, Boruto understood that only one of the two of them could leave this place. However, he would not accept this, he was the son of the Hokage, and he did not want to give up on his friends, even now.

"No! I'm not leavi-"

"Boruto! Go! Get that scroll to your sister and Sarada, there's no time!"

"Don't argue with me Mitsuki, we NEVER argue! It's... it's so uncool!" Boruto was grasping at straws now, slang from what felt like another life breeding into his speech in his desperation, and he knew it.

"Then you know how important this is," Mitsuki said in his soft-spoken voice, and Boruto could barely hear it over the sound of Mitsuki's kunai blocking a renewed attempt from his opponent. "Good luck... my sun." He commented, and Boruto had to actually strain to hear it, but he didn't have time to ponder the strange boy's even stranger speech pattern, as Mitsuki's free arm extended, grabbing Boruto's collar and forcing to begin running in order to avoid being dragged on his heels.

Finally accepting what his best friend had understood when he had engaged in the fight, the blonde teen launched himself up, through the hole in the tree canopy that had been undoubtedly made when Mitsuki had crashed down through it, the blonde spare a final look over his should as he slung the scroll back where it belonged. He saw Mitsuki, a now familiar green aura around him, strike a killing blow on the thing that wore their sensei's face, and a tree shot up from the corpse. It was one of the few remaining White Zetsu, then. He turned to move as the Zetsu's reinforcements swarmed the street, slipping away unseen by any other than Mitsuki.

He snapped his attention back in front of himself, jumping between treetops and ruined rooftops. Most of the enemies were drawn to Mitsuki's fight, he couldn't sense any others. He added a little chakra to his feet to speed up his movement, then brought his fingers up to create a diversion that would only work now that he knew he was losing his tail. His fingers formed a long-familiar handsign, and he whispered a quick Kage Bushin no Jutsu under his breath. Immediately, three more Borutos sprung into life around him, each with what looked like a copy of the scroll. They each shot in different directions, with the original making a sharp right to veer towards a once-proud wall which now lay in ruins. He made it to the wall without too much trouble, so he assumed the other guards were engaged with one of his bushin. He slipped out of the ruined city through a small hole in the wall which had been there for years. As he was climbing clear, he felt the long familiar rush of memories coming back to him that accompanied a clone being dispelled. The enemy had chased the clone that doubled back for Mitsuki, then. He supposed that made sense, years ago that was what he would have done. Yet, he didn't - he no longer lived in a world that could afford to do so. Casting one final look at the ruins of Kohonagakure, Boruto Uzumaki vanished into the night.

o - o - o - o

A pair of young women waited outside a rocked cave at the base of a mountain, the older of the two with bright red eyes swirling, a black pattern where her pupils might have been, was tapping her foot. The 18-year old's red shirt shifted as she crossed her arms impatiently. Her red eyeglasses were tangled in her long black hair, but she didn't seem to care.

"Honestly! Where is your brother? He left hours ago, and he still isn't back! We don't have much longer!" She exclaimed angrily.

"I know you're angry Sarada, but please, keep. it. down. You'll wake everyone who's sleeping and then we'll have another different issue to deal with, besides the ones my brother makes." The other girl, who was about 5 years younger than the girl next to her, had waist-length black hair, although it had more of a blue tint to it than the girl next to her. She had bangs that framed her face, and a network of visible veins protruded from her pale, lavender eyes. The older girl took a long, deep breath, and exhaled.

"Yes, you're right. You have the patience of a saint Hima. Sorry about that." She whispered. The younger gave a nod of acknowledgment. Suddenly, in the corner of her enhanced field of vision, she spotted something. A boy, moving through the forest at high speeds, chakra going to his feet as he jumped from tree to tree.

"There, he's almost here." Himawari hissed.

"Is Mitsuki with him?" Sarada barely dared to ask. Himawari looked again, before slowly shaking her head. Sarada drew a shaky breath, then steadied herself. "Okay. Focus Sarada, it isn't like you won't join him soon." Himawari placed a steady hand on the older girl's shoulder, before her older brother, Boruto, burst through the treeline into the clearing where the cave entrance the two were guarding stood. His eye caught Sarada, and in an instant and a look, the two shared a thousand words. Handing the scroll that Mitsuki had sacrificed himself to get off to his sister, Boruto wrapped his last surviving teammate into a hug.

"We'll see them both soon - him and sensei, and..." Came the start of the whispered comforts. Taking her cue, Himawari turned and unrolled the scroll to the jutsu that Sarada had seen once before with her Sharingan - the Jutsu that had sparked this crazy hail mary of a plan. She worked quickly, using her Byakugan to check the seals on the scroll against the ones Sarada had remembered (She hadn't wanted to gamble lives and discover they lost because of an incorrect seal, but the Sharingan never forgets). They had inked them up along the walls where the other shinobi slept, and she looked once more, checking for any discrepancies. There weren't any.

She crept forward, slipping the scroll into her father's pack, along with a white envelope. Stepping back, she cast her eyes over what was left of the shinobi alliance. A small portion of the command units from each village, and a few random jounin who'd been on missions the day the civilian and shinobi camps had been taken out in two simultaneous attacks in the middle of the night. There were more Kohona and Kumo shinobi left, 12 and 7 respectively, not counting the three teens. Iwa had suffered the most, they were down to just two shinobi. Kiri wasn't much better, they had 3 shinobi, one only a few years older than Boruto and Sarada. Suna had 4 remaining, and Mifune's samurai had 5.

Himawari crept back to the mouth of the cave to wait for the signal, when a resounding clang broke the morning silence, followed by Sarada's pained cry of "Kabuto!"

Himawari's father was awake in an instant, others shooting to consciousness at varying rates behind the Nanadaime Hokage. He moved towards the narrow mouth of the cave, but surprise and years of training allowed her to knock her father back into the others, sending them staggering. She could hear the fighting outside (They couldn't win, not against Kabuto, they had barely escaped last time when he had claimed Boruto's sensei's life in exchange for theirs), and saw the hurt in her father's eyes as he climbed to his feet. She saw the hurt in her mother's as well, and closed her eyes to block them out, she had to follow through now. She pressed her hands downwards, pressing her left against the activation for the space-time seal she'd trapped the 33 surviving shinobi and samurai inside off, which caught their attention as it lights up the room, glowing a faint purple. Her right hand found the detonator for a series of paper bombs that would bring down the entrance to the cavern. Peaking her eyes open, she saw that the 33 packs and the 33 humans (and one nin-dog) had begun to glow a faint purple. Her father was staring at her and the paper bombs, frozen. Himawari closed her eyes a final time and whispered a final farewell.

"Goodbye." Her world was entombed in stone. "Gomen, Mina."

o - o - o - o

**After this, the chapters are going to be more entertaining and cheerful, but I felt that the starting was a bad time in the world, and they needed to carry themselves in a way that would make sense for that.**

**Dictionary of Japanese:**

**Sensei (Honorific): Occasionally used on its own, attached to the names of a teacher**

**Gomen: Sorry**

**Mina: Everyone**

**Kage Bushin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Jutsu**

**For those curious, Himawari's final words translate to "Sorry, Everyone." An earlier draft included Boruto and Sarada's final words, which were, "We're coming everyone" for Boruto, and Sarada's were "We're sorry we couldn't avenge you in this life." Mitsuki's would have been "I have found my will".**

**Questions? Write a review, and I'll answer it in the next chapter, or shoot me a pm!**

**Fic Recommendation: Unexpectedly, by Nath Tsubaa Evans - a WIP time travel story that is still only 2 chapters in yet somehow I find myself reading over and over again, set just weeks before Boruto is born, and featuring an accidentally time traveling Team Kakashi.**

**ALSO, would anyone here be interested in either of the following story concepts:**

_**Boruto 2.0, T** _ _**he Naruto Sequel We Actually Wanted** _

**"Follow the cast of Boruto, (Now with personality outside their parents!) as they navigate the world the changing world they live in, especially as the fragile peace they were born into crumbles away while tensions mount between the 5 Great Nations and the smaller villages left floundering their wake. (There may also be moon aliens but I make no promises.)**

**OR**

_**Naruto Movies, Written with 20/20 Hindsight** _

**You all know how it goes - you see the synopsis for the latest movie and think "Maybe this one won't be trash!", and then walk out fo theater with the painful feeling of wasted potential in your guts. Well, with the power of the magic known as hindsight and fan suggestions, I will suffer through all of these many movies and rewrite them so that they live up to the standard set by the anime, and are unafraid to use all of the characters to their full potential. (Also there will be more Kakashi in all of them. Just a warning. Kakashi is awesome.) (Did we ever find out wtf his history was with Yuki in the snow movie? NO .)**

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: N/A

Current Location: Lost in the spacetime

Next POV: Tenten


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Which a Baby Does Some Deep Thinking

**Welcome back to another chapter! A quick update - I'm now aiming for updates every third week, so just... be on the lookout for those!**

**A warning before we start: This is not a smooth flowing chapter. It is jarring and sort of odd, as well as somewhat dull. This is because this chapter spans a year from the eyes of a 39-year-old woman trapped inside the body of a baby. She is bored, so these come off as bored. Also, Tenten has actually no cannon family, so I wrote a short vignette about them and included her drawing parallels to the family she built for herself in Team Gai. In the end, I removed it (it didn't contribute to the story and was in need of more polishing), but if you're interested I would be happy to post it as an omake later. (Just shoot me a review!)**

**Underlines words can be found in the dictionary of terms at the bottom!**

o - o - o - o

** Chapter 1 **

_In Which a Baby Does Some Deep Thinking_

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Original (Alpha)

Those In On The Secret: N/A

Current Location: Cave

Current POV: Tenten

o - o - o - o

The last thing Tenten remembered was lavender (The color of Neji's eyes). It had illuminated the seals that surrounded them all in that cave, (trapped by a seal like Neji) and illuminated Himawari's still form, dark by comparison to the brilliant violet, only her Byakugan illuminated but the lavender light as she whispered her final goodbye (Neji never got to say goodbye to her and Lee) and the only thing that flashed through her mind was not a question of why or a plea to understand what was going on, but as the cave collapsed, all Tenten thought was _I'm coming, Neji, Gai-Sensei, Metal._

Everything was lavender. (Like Neji - Damn it, she was supposed to be over this!) until suddenly, it wasn't.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: N/A

Current Location: (?)

Current POV: Tenten

Time Until Naruto's Birth: 1 year, 7 months, 1 day

o - o - o - o

Tenten knew she was somewhere different than she had been before by the smell. Wherever she was now smelled like antiseptic and death. A couple of years ago, she might have denied that death had a smell, but time and experience had taught her that smell better than she ever wanted to know it. There was... something different about that smell now like it had been covered by an air freshener. It was a strange, yet not an unwelcome change. Curious, Tenten forced her eyes open, immediately surprised and worried by the amount of effort it took - the average human did it several thousand times a day! (She wasn't sure of the actual number, but Tenten was sure Sakura would know.) What she saw, however, shocked her.

At first glance, it was a familiar sight, the Konoha General Hospital. Tenten's first thought was _hasn't it been destroyed?_ , followed immediately by _sweet Kami everything is huge!_ Her eyes flicked along the windows, a dirt glass pane with green paint on the frame, and the dull white curtains, each easily five times as large as she was. Looking to her left, she saw a hospital bed larger than she could even begin to comprehend. the stupid little orange chair in the corner had even received the giant treatment, and she was willing to bet that 5 or 6 Tentens could fit in there without a problem. Each of the floor tiles, previously about the size of two fingers each, were around the size of her head.

Tenten closed her eyes again, she tried to slow down her beating heart and racing mind, thinking over the issue again. She ran through her recent memories, trying to figure out what was going on - the color lavender was her most recent memory (Neji!), and then Himawari with the seals, Paper bombs in a cave, an attack by Kabuto - Tenten stopped, and attempted to hit herself in the forehead with her palm, but couldn't. (Something that would worry her later.) It didn't matter right now - this was a Genjutsu, probably from one of Kabuto's Edo Tensai-ed Genjutsu masters! She went to bring her hands together to form the necessary hand sign to flare her chakra and disrupt the Genjutsu, and instantly regretted not worrying about the hand-on-forehead failure. Despite her very best efforts, Tenten could not get her arms to do what she wanted them to do. (This was embarrassing, on so many levels). Instead of moving to clasp her hands together, her (pudgy little stumps?) arms just flailed about like a faint breeze was blowing them. I growled at them in anger, but all that came out was a faint cooing sound.

Suddenly, Tenten was being wrapped in a lavender blanket (what was it with the universe and lavender? More importantly, where had the clothing she had been wearing gone? She liked that shirt, dang it!) and she felt a weightlessness akin to a huge chakra leap, and then all of a sudden there was something strong underneath her, moving my body. (Arms? Those felt like giant arms.) Suddenly, the whole moment of what-the-fuck was completed when a soft, familiar voice whispered in my ear.

"Welcome to life, Tenten, my daughter."

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: N/A

Current Location: Giant Konoha Hospital (?)

Current POV: Tenten

Time Until Naruto's Birth: 1 year, 6 months, 27 days

o - o - o - o

Tenten spent 5 days in the hospital, stuck in what she now recognized to be her 'baby-ified' state, flaring her Chakra. Over, and over, and over again. This was all a genjutsu, she just knew it. There was no other option, and eventually, her Chakra would be able to break through it (At least Tenten hoped so!) She was, however, beginning to worry, even tiny baby chakra should have broken down any illusion after 5 days of continuously working at it, it was certainly youthful enough. (Oh merciful Kami the Youth really was infectious, Tenten was torn between proud and mortified, really.)

The first time she had flared her chakra, it had brought all the nurses running in, fearing the worst, but they found nothing wrong with her. (The illusion was worryingly good, and she found herself wishing for Neji's Byakugan, which saw through all illusions, but it was gone and- no. Bad Tenten, no good thoughts lie that way.) This process had repeated itself so many times over that first day that Tenten had lost count, although thankfully the nurses had set someone to monitor her, before promptly learning to ignore her, although they did strongly recommend a shinobi career. That was how, on on the fifth day of her entrapment as a the Tenten baby chibi, or bibi (as she had dubbed herself sometime during the wee hours of the second morning), she found herself going home with the giants (adults?) resembling her parents. For the time being, she avoided flaring her Chakra, for fear of causing a scene that would bring all of the illusionary ANBU (it would be just her luck that they were here, honestly!) running. As her parents left the gate of the general hospital, Tenten felt the need to remind herself that this was an illusion, Konoha was gone, it simply had to be genjutsu. There were just no other options.

(Tenten had never been all that good at lying to herself.)

Her parents rounded an all too familiar corner, and Tenten made a noise of baby surprise (keep it together girl, you are a 39-year-old jounin!) as a streak of familiar green spandex rounded the opposite corner. Almost on instinct, Tenten attempted to call out to chide him, attempting to move her hands to grab what might have once been a familiar weapon with which to wreak her vengeance.

"Lee!" She attempted to call out to him, but, curse her baby mouth, all that came out was a sadly adorable gurgling noise. Again. Curse her tiny baby motor functions. It turned out to be all for the best, as for the first time, an entirely new possibility was brought to her attention.

"Kakashi My Eternal Rival! Let us attempt a challenge! As it stands our record is 28-25, and if I lose I will do a thousand push-ups and-" As Tenten watched, a boy with a familiar mop of silver hair and a mostly hidden face walked by, totally blowing off who Tenten now recognized as a bibi (oh Kami that was going to stick, she could tell already) Gai-sensei, who was totally undeterred. "Oh My Gosh, My Eternal Rival, you are so Hip and Cool! Your Springtime of Youth..." (Tenten could hear all of those capital letters, and a small part of her felt for the bibi Kakashi-sensei.)

Tenten's father said something that she couldn't quite hear or make out to her mother, and they moved on, her head now disregarding the (mostly disproven) genjutsu thing for the other option now presented to her: Time travel. Inside the hospital it had never occurred to her - she wasn't a medic like Sakura, and she had avoided the hospital as any good jounin did; there was no way Tenten would have been able to tell the difference between the hospital where she was born and the hospital where Metal was born, they were all just white sterile rooms.

Her mother was rocking her now, (and wasn't that just a giant mindfuck?) and Tenten found herself giving into her surprisingly compelling bibi influences, and fell asleep, surrounded by the familiar sounds of Konoha and Gai-Sensei's crazy yelling.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: Tenten

Current Location: Tenten's Home

Current POV: Tenten

Time Until Naruto's Birth: 1 year, 3 months, 16 days

o - o - o - o

It took Teten a little more than three months to get her motor functions completely under control in her new form. She still has cubby bibi limbs, but now she has total control of said chubby limbs. More importantly, she had managed to do it all at night - her parents hadn't noticed her working on these things at all! Excellent use of her otherwise deteriorating ninja skills, if she says so herself.

During the day, however, Tenten took to putting her thinking cap on and contemplating the universe, and the way it relates to her previous and current age. (Tenten had discovered fairly quickly that she still only needed the five or so hours of sleep that had become routine for her before the time-trip.) After hours upon hours of deep contemplation while in her tiny pink kitty onesie, she had come to a conclusion.

This was all Naruto Uzumaki's fault.

It didn't matter how it had happened, or what kind of forbidden scroll the self-proclaimed 'coolest generation' had gotten into to do this. No, this was Naruto's fault because sure, other people had weird things happen to them (Tenten was a team with Lee and Gai, she KNEW weird), but this was a strangeness at a level that can only ever have an Uzumaki at its center (Following that logic, Tenten supposed that it could also have been Boruto's fault, but since he was Naruto's son that would almost kinda make it Naruto's fault by extension) Besides, there were no records of anything even remotely similar ever happening to anyone else in any other generation, and Tenten was quite certain no other generation had ever had Naruto, and by extension, the crazy shit that follows him everywhere. One only has to look at his C-rank history to know that everything he touches goes crazy.

On another subject, slightly less pressing though it may be, was the question that would shape her next years of life - to change, or not to change? While at the end of the day this was hardly a decision that she was going to make alone (Tenten refused to believe she was the only one back in the past), she needed to form an opinion for when the Konoha 11 (13 now if you included Sai and Sasuke, Tenten isn't sure if should/does yet/anymore/currently) meet again. She's torn, she really is because while she wants to save as many lives as she can (Neji!), she also likes the way things were going for a long time, and she would love to recreate most of the events leading up to when the Otsutsuki Clan invaded, yet at the same time be more prepared, since the element of surprise was what did humanity in at the end.

There was Tenten's decision. She had spent hours upon hours running through every possible pro and con and decided that she would try to let events run their course, yet absolutely never at the cost of lives. Otherwise, she had little to no idea how to bring about something as big as the allied shinobi forces, but Tenten was also sure that everyone would agree that the ALS was important, it shaped the word they brought their children into, and then that world shaped said children. From there, Tenten was decided, she'd try to stick to the world's current path, but that she would protect the lives of those around her first and foremost.

She was turning these thoughts over again in her head, trying to construct a timeline of the events that shaped Konoha (Naruto was at the center of an almost embarrassing number of them, now that Tenten considered it) when sounds of her father's loud groan came from upstairs, signaling that he was starting to wake. Tenten, casting a quick around the baby lavender room and blindingly white cage (crib, it was a crib), she spotted her blanket. it was a pale yellow blanket with the ugliest green patterning on it, but her mother was stupidly found of it. Tenten pulled it up over herself, feigning sleep.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: Tenten, Lee

Current Location: Tenten's Home

Current POV: Tenten

Time Until Naruto's Birth: 0 years, 9 months, 23 days

o - o - o - o

While Tenten was nine months old, she finally got her (gosh darn) vocal cords to work. Which, now that she thought about it, was around the same time it had taken her bibi self the first time around. Although to say they were under control was generous at best, she was definitely going to have to work on her speech and sounds later tonight. (The thought of not being in control of something so simple as her own speech patterns made her incredibly on-edge.) Tenten felt totally justified in her first words though.

Her mother had come in the morning to change her out of her PJs (Tenten was used to that at this point, but man, that had been awkward at first) a bag that looked to be from a shop that sold baby supplies under one arm. (Tenten liked that shop, she'd done most of her shopping for Metal at there as well) Her mother busied herself with removing Tenten's onesie (so impractical, yet so very comfy!) before doing something that almost stopped Tenten's heart right then and there. From within the bag, Tenten's mother drew a hot pink dress with long, sheer sleeves and a lace collar. (Tenten wasn't sure she liked that shop anymore.)

Looking at that pink monstrosity, Tenten's instinct kicked in, and she tried to cry out _No! Not that dress!_ but the key word there had to be tried. however, it seemed to be enough, for mother nature gave her the ability to send some of her protests out in what could almost be called understandable language.

"No! No dress!" Her mother adopted a look of shock, and it was all Tenten could do to keep from matching it with a smug one.

"Dear? Dear come quick, Ten-y has just said her first word!" Tenten hated that nickname. Her brother's friend had given it to her, a Branch Family Hyuuga clan member named Ko. She also knew her father wasn't coming, he was working in the shop. While he loved his wife and daughter, there was no way he would hear either from inside the shop. Her older brother did appear though.

"She did? What did she say?" He asked. Tenten's mother smiled and made another attempt as the poor girl with the pink monstrosity in her hands.

"No! No dress Ma!" Tenten added another syllable to try and aid what she was beginning to feel like was her dying cause. Her brother was cackling now, the little traitor.

"I don't think she wants to wear the dress Mam." Their mother let out an angry hmpf.

Tenten wore the dress.

(ew.)

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino

Current Location: Park

Current POV: Tenten

Time Until Naruto's Birth: 0 years, 7 months, 1 day

o - o - o - o

Tenten's first birthday party was on March ninth, and her parents held the celebration at the park. It was a surprisingly large affair, given that if she hadn't been a time-traveler who was actually celebrating her 40th year of life (oh gods, did that mean she was 40? No, it was her second annual 39th birthday, and she was sticking to that.) she would never have remembered today. There was a shade structure set up, surrounded by 4 little hills of grass-covered soil. A pair of quilts had been strewn on the ground, and a splattering of pink, yellow, and green pillows was around. There were a handful other babies here, but Tenten didn't recognize them.

She could see and hear other families now, scattered around the 4 hills. She barely registered their presence, they weren't who she wanted to spend her birthday with, none of the people present were. She wanted her team, team 9, but she also wanted her girls, and if she was being honest, the whole of the Konoha 13 (She included Sai and Sasuke.)

Tenten flopped back onto her back, staring at the roof. She ignored the noises of the worried adults, closing her eyes in deep thought. If she could, she would have invited the whole 13, but the Hyuuga wouldn't bring Neji withing 20 feet of a civilian park, Lee was only 5 months, and Shino was barely a month old. By her count, Sakura would be born next, in about 15 days.

Once she was slightly older, they would need to find somewhere to meet in private, Tenten though, while being held by her brother. She cast her eyes around the village, her eyes settling on Hokage Mountain, mental gears turning.

o - o - o - o

**Well, that was a thing.**

**It's late.**

**I'm going to sleep.**

**Questions? Write a review, and I'll answer it in the next chapter, or shoot me a pm!**

**Dictionary of Japanese:**

**Sensei (Honorific): Occasionally used on its own, attached to the names of a teacher**

**Gomen: Sorry**

**Mina: Everyone**

**Kage Bushin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Jutsu**

**Ninadaime: Seventh (Hokage Implied)**

**Edo Tensei: The Jutsu used by Orochimaru & Kabuto to raise the dead, created by the Second Hokage**

**Genjutsu: Illusion Jutsu**

**Kami: G-d** **(My faith IRL says not to write G-d's name in vain, and this is a rule I usually try to follow - I wouldn't be able to toss out drafts with the full word written, and the habit translates to typing. We usually replace the o with a hyphen, if you ever see me do this and wonder why.)**

**Fic Recommendations: A Political Perspective, by VJ Riddle, is a feel-good story about a Team 7 bond that comes about when, in order to avoid a political mess, Kakashi is forced to help Team 7 "Beat Teamwork" and all of their "Teamwork Rivals".**

o - o - o - o

**Omake:**

By the time Tenten was six months old, she was so very sick of being a baby. It wasn't the mushy food (ew baby mush), or the diapers (That had been... hard to readjust to). No, what was driving her crazy was watching her family drama unfold without being able to interrupt said stupid family members. In her first life, she had thought her older brother, Jao, was rude and ungrateful. Now, however, watching the crazy soap opera that had somehow become her life, she had decided he was her favorite relative. (He had died in the Kohona Crush the first time around) He was 7 now and already training to take over her father's weapon shop. He was quirky and full of ideas, the creative to her father's solid, logical approach to business. Her father was a tall, spikey haired man who bore no last name. Originally from the Hagane Clan, he had discarded the part of his name when he had been disowned after he left the academy and announced his plan to become a civilian and run a smithery. He was ambitious and driven, yet so very set in his ways, which created tension between him and Jao. (Tenten's father had died of illness only a year or two after she had married Lee and had Metal, still refusing to speak to her, he disapproved of her choice in marriage.)

The two often fought, as they were then, and the subject was some kind of new weapon Jao wanted to try making. Tenten's mother, oh so very civilian mother, watched the argument like a kunai fight, not daring to step into the peacekeeper role the way Tenten could already tell she was going to have to someday. (Her mother had died of an illness when Tenten was 15.)

As she watched her brother's pale, blue long sleeves fly everywhere while he gestured angrily, his shorter, spiky brown hair whipping around to follow the backlash from his arms, all Tenten could think about was how much she missed her true family, Team 9. When she saw them next, they would have a chance to be whole again, and sometimes on days like this, it was just that one fact that kept her going, even as her mother's shrieking made her want to clamp her hands over he tiny ears, and give into her bibi instincts and cry.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Choji, Kiba, Sasuke

Current Location: Floating in the spacetime (again)

Next POV: Sasuke


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke does some matchmakings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny baby Sasuke is adorable dangit.

**Updated 2/26**

**Grammar Edits and Fic Recommendation**

**So fair warning: This was supposed to be a serious chapter I swear. It... almost was. It also was supposed to focus on the Kyuubi attack and the Uchiha family as its center points, and I can confidently say I accomplished one of those goals.**

**I was re-watching the Itachi's Story arc of the anime and Izumi is far too cute and I am actually so attached please send help.**

**(This entire chapter has had many moments of Sasuke shipping Itachi and Izumi removed because he is not that big of a shipper and while I will project onto some characters somehow I just can't see him shipping, but let it be known that my muse did write those scenes.)**

**ALSO! Underlined words will have definitions at the end of the chapter - there is no other reasoning as to what is picked or not.**

o - o - o - o

**Chapter 2**

_In Which Sasuke Helps Itachi Get the Girl and Become a National Hero_

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Original (Alpha)

Those In On The Secret: N/A

Current Location: Time-Space Limbo

Current POV: Sasuke

o - o - o - o

Floating limply in limbo was a feeling that Sasuke Uchiha was surprisingly familiar with. Limbo was the space between everything, and every time he passed through space using his Rinnegan (Not his alien moon-magic powers, no matter what Sakura might say to the contrary), he was floating in the limbo for a second or two. So to say Sasuke was familiar with the feeling of being loose in limbo was a fair statement. Time-limbo, however, was not where Sasuke expected to end up after the cave he had previously been in collapsed. He floated in the nothing, fully aware. In limbo, there is no sound, no Chakra, and almost no light. His Sharingan eye could see nothing but the overwhelming violet he had long since come to associate with being in limbo. His Rinnegan, however, could see past the blinding dimness to what lay beyond. It could make out shapes that Sasuke recognized as his friends and comrades (Because he still refused to acknowledge Kiba as a friend, dude was useful but annoying as all heck), each frozen in the position they had been in when the younger Uzumaki child set off the seal. (Because of course, it was an Uzumaki.)

Speaking of that seal, Sasuke could see what was probably its intended effect beginning to take hold. Their bodies were slowly regressing - going from the strong 38 39 year-olds they were backward through their ages the more... time(? Sasuke wasn't sure what to call it, the regression took both forever and happened, and he officially hated time limbo) they spent here. Having memories the look of most of the seal with his Sharingan, Sasuke examined it in his mind's eye over again, especially once he noticed the regressions. (Sasuke had picked up a fair amount of sealing simply by listening to Naruto rant about it in all of the Hokage's unending free time and through rude snarky letters he received from said Hokage.) He couldn't understand most of the intriguing and carefully drawn kanji symbols, but after recognizing the symbols for 'rebirth', 'time', 're-do' and 'second life', he figured you'd have to be the dobe to not know what was going on.

His daughter had sent them back in time.

(Sasuke secretly approved.)

It wasn't until the shock of everything had worn off and Sasuke's brain had decided to start functioning again that his stomach promptly opened into a bottomless pit. Sarada wasn't here. None of her team 7 was here, and neither was Himawari. They had sacrificed themselves to send their parent's generation back in time and had either chosen not to follow or had been unable to. Sasuke was furious, and he was going to find a way to drag her to the inevitable new timeline. He filed away the memory of the seal, newly determined to figure it out.

(Sasuke strongly disapproved.)

Sasuke's thinking time was then rudely interrupted by his own winking out of limbo and back into existence.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those in on the Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Chouji, Kiba (Also the dog but that's a given) (Also some people in other villages) (Please don't make me write the whole list) (I'll add them in later chapters) (This chapter is late enough without me having to go look up these people's birthdays up) (Give me a year and I'm sure they'll all be born) (If you must know I'm fairly sure Temari is here somewhere, doing Suna things in Suna)

Current Location: Kohona Hospital

Current POV: Sasuke

Time until Naruto is born: 2 Months, 17 days

o - o - o - o

Sasuke opened his eyes and was nearly overwhelmed by emotion right away. His baby form responded to that and immediately burst into loud, dramatic tears. (Dang! No one warned him about that kind of thing!) Staring down at him, eyes full of love, was a face Sasuke had not seen since he was eight. (And in his many nightmares, must not forget those!) The almond eyes of Mikoto Uchiha stared down at him, love sparkling in them.

"Have you decided on a name yet dear?" Sasuke's mother asked, and Sasuke saw the other two males in the room, and his heart very nearly threatened to explode. Itachi was there, in all his older-brotherly glory.

"Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha." His father responded, stroking the newly re-named boy's face. (Sasuke could have sworn that his father had never been so affectionate before.) Sasuke clenched his hand or at least tried to. It wouldn't do what he wanted it to. He was, however, still able to get his point across. Sasuke's little baby arms (Libi?) arms waved towards Itachi.

"But Honey... oh! Sasuke do you want to go to your older brother?" Mikoto asked, finally noticing his not at all subtle flailing in said older brother's direction. As he felt himself being handed to his older brother, he tuned out the discussion of his name between his mother and father. (He was already named Sasuke, and in his grand total of five minutes of life he doubted he had done anything that could change that.) Sasuke stopped crying as he was threatened by a new wave of emotions, and this time he successfully bit down on his Libi instincts to cry with the new emotions, knowing that his mother would try to take him back, Sasuke closed his eyes and gently allowed his brother to rock him to sleep, his father's assurance that it was ok for him to be named after the Sandaime's father fading away.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those in on the Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Chouji, Kiba (and peeps from other villages whose names are currently unknown)

Current Location: Uchiha Family Head's House

Current POV: Sasuke

Time Until Naruto is Born: 19 days

o - o - o - o

The next time Sasuke was truly conscious was two months later. Sasuke had quickly grown so very bored as a baby and had instead resorted to using the meditation techniques that Kakashi had taught him during Sasuke's probationary period following the fourth war. The practice allowed Sasuke to detach his consciousness from his body, and it allowed him to watch his body go about basic daily routines from a point partway into both the space and time limbos, where he could practice with his Chakra without causing a panic to erupt in every jounin within a mile-wide radius, unlike what had happened the first time he had practiced with his Indra path chakra.

(Sasuke regretted nothing.)

During his meditations, he had discovered, to his great joy, that while his physical body had regressed, his chakra reserves control had remained the same. (Sasuke wasn't quite sure what he would have done otherwise. There might have been blood.)

In that moment of consciousness, he had chosen to be because, for the first time since he had been born, both his mother and father were going out - meaning he was going to be left at home with just Itachi for the first time! Sasuke had been awaiting this for a while, all through his older brother had unfortunately re-developed the habit of poking innocent, smaller foreheads. (Sasuke couldn't even pretend he was unhappy about that.)

"And remember Itachi, Sasuke will need to be fed, the bottles are-" Mikoto rambled, one hand flailing around, the other supporting her son, who was wrapped in a light blue blanket, which had the Uchiha symbol on it. (The clan had an uncontrollable habit of slapping it on everyone everything.) Sasuke's father had placed his hand on Mikoto's shoulder, doing his best to calm her before the Uchiha crest hairpin came out of the neat bun her hair was pulled back into. It was a gentle show of support and love, the kind his father was fond of and that Sasuke had never been able to read before.

"He's my boy, Mikoto, Itachi will be just fine." Fugaku trusted Itachi. (Sasuke totally wasn't jealous or anything.) Mikoto handed Sasuke to Itachi, and Sasuke curled his finger around the fingers of the older brother but was unable to stop the inevitable forehead poke. He let out a little mewl of discomfort, drawing out a giggle from his mother and an amused smirk from his father.

With his father's hands on Itachi's shoulder and around his mother's waist, who in turn was pulling both him and his brother into a loose hug, Sasuke made himself a promise. He would do whatever it took to protect his family, no matter what happened, no matter what Danzo or Obito threw at them.

(Sasuke idly wondered what he could bribe Sai with to help him keep Danzo well away from the Uchiha Clan.)

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those in on the Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Chouji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Ino (and some people from other villages)

Current Location: Uchiha Compound

Current POV: Sasuke

Time Until Naruto is Born: 5 minutes

o - o - o - o

The air was eerily shrill on the evening of October 10th, as though the very buildings of Kohona were aware of what was to come. Sasuke's family, however, was not. He wanted desperately to stop them from leaving the house, to be an adult and to grab them and hold them tight, never letting go, but yet he knew that they had all played a vital role in the first Kyuubi attack, and they had to be wherever they were off to so that when the demon appeared, they could guide the police force to evacuate the citizens. And yet, even as Itachi wrapped him in the sash which was covered in the Uchiha symbol (Sasuke was almost sure it wasn't like that before and he was incredibly amused by the fact that he had somehow done something to make that change), Sasuke was still doing his very best to suppress the ever-growing voice in the back of his head that told him to shield his family, and to leave the rest of Kohona to the wolves. (That voice was BAD, he reminded himself. That was the 'kill my teammates voice'.) Sasuke distracted himself by attempting to grab Itachi's fingers to suck on them. Was that his petty form of revenge for the forehead poking? Yes, yes it was.

Itachi stared up at the sky, and Sasuke seized the opportunity to wrap his mouth around this brother's fingers. Itachi barely had time to look down with a fond smile on his face when there was a loud explosion followed by screaming

"Kyuubi!" Itachi froze before he tightened his grip around this brother, and then he began to run, sprinting out of the house and onto the main road of the Uchiha complex. He was running, and Sasuke could feel panic bleeding through in Itachi's chakra, even as he kept murmuring calming things into his brother's ear while holding steady so that he didn't bounce around as Itachi ran. Suddenly, the sound of his brother's voice was overcome by a resounding boom, the sounds of thousands of tons of lumber shattering. Itachi hit the ground as chunks of debris rained around them, causing vibrations which reached and shook Sasuke's very core. He was forced to fight the center of his very instincts to cry out, instead choosing to bury his face in the fabric of Itachi's shirt.

"There there, Sasuke, I bet that scared you, but it's okay, it'll be ok." Itachi rubbed Sasuke's hair as he once again climbed to his feet. Sasuke grabbed the offending hand as it moved towards his forehead for a poke, silently insisting to himself he wasn't scared at all. (He was scared, the killing intent was... more impressive than he expected.)

"This is an announcement from the Leaf Police Department! All civilians are to proceed to the Southeast Shelter at once!" The voice of Sasuke's Father chimed in over the PA system, reminding Sasuke why he had been forced to let his father leave the house this morning. Also huh, Sasuke had totally forgotten that the village had once had a PA system prior to the Kyuubi attack. (Kakashi had been forced to install a new one during his tenure as Rokudaime, putting one in had seemed unimportant in wake of the devastating losses of the demon's rampage.) Sasuke silently swore to defend the PA system and/or install a new one under the cover of darkness while the village slept.

Itachi suddenly skidded to a halt, causing Sasuke to bounce up and down uncomfortably before he turned his head to follow his older brother's line of sight. At the end of the alleyway to his left who Sasuke didn't recognize stood there, dressed in a medium-length purple dress with the _Uchiwa_ on her back, half hidden by her ponytail.

"Mom... Dad..." She sniffed, moving almost as if in trance towards the collapsing building Sasuke guesstimated was once her home.

"Izumi!" Itachi cried out, which caused the girl to stop with a start and turn, and it was then that Sasuke remembered - this was the girl Itachi had once harbored a huge crush on as a child and had later even gone so far as to pursue as a romantic interest prior to the whole massacre thing.

"Ita... Itachi?" She asked, tears streaming down her face, and Sasuke decided right then and there that the emotion she allowed into her voice made her the perfect partner for his emotionally constipated older brother. (Even if neither of them knew it yet.)

"Come on! Let's go to the shelter together!" Itachi grabbed Izumi's had, their eyes met and they both started to run, Izumi managing to keep pace with Itachi. Sasuke bounced along, slightly uncomfortable, but made no noise for fear that Itachi would pull his hand from where it rested in Izumi's. (Sasuke was already counting his future nieces & nephews.) They reached the police force guards who guided the evacuation, pulling Sasuke from back down to earth to his plan to stop the Kyuubi attack at an earlier point. From where they stood, they now had a view of the fox for the first time, alongside the Uchiha police who were monitoring it as well as making marks on a list of civilians to ensure they got everyone. Sasuke saw his chance and yanked on Itachi's shirt before he pointed at Fugaku.

"Tou-san have fox eyes!" He announced to his rapt audience of Itachi Izumi.

"Silly Sasuke, that's his Sharingan." Itachi corrected, slowly moving forward in the orderly line, still standing close to Izumi. Sasuke appreciated that being stopped meant that he wasn't being jostled, but fixed his face into a pout to show Itachi that he was misunderstanding the point.

"Fox have rin-gan!" Okay maybe not quite the full message of what Sasuke had wanted to say, but even with his limited speech capabilities, his message got across. Itachi opened his mouth to correct him again, taking another step forward in line when Izumo tapped his shoulder, adding her piece.

"He's right, there is a Sharingan reflected in the Kyuubi's eyes." Itachi's eyes visibly widened, and he whipped his head around at the police force members in what could only be poorly concealed panic as their argument became loud enough that everyone nearby could hear.

"But Taicho!" An officer's voice broke into their silence, which masked their deep thoughts.

"Our orders are to stay and protect the citizens, and that is final." Fugaku commanded his men. Itachi swallowed air and took a deep breath, and then he handed Sasuke to Izumi.

"Protect him, I will go to break the illusion that was placed on the demon." Sasuke clung to Izumi's ponytail, which hung over her shoulder, as she choked back a single sob as she hugged Itachi goodbye, handed the checked in with the officers at the front of the line (They both pointedly ignored the concerned looks from Sasuke's father as he tried to figure out where Itachi had gone while he was distracted.), and she ran to the shelter, finally allowing a few tears of worry to slide down her face.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those in on the Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Chouji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Naruto (if you must know I'm fairly sure Baki Ao are there.) (Like... 50/50 chance sure.) (I swear I have a story outline.)

Current Location: Kohona Graveyard

Current POV: Sasuke

Naruto's Age: 4 days

o - o - o - o

"We are gathered here today to mourn those who passed in the terrible attack on our village four days ago. Among the fallen include our beloved Yondaime Hokage, who gave his life to seal the demon back into its previous host, as well as putting half of it into a new host so as to prevent the demon from ever being able to do something like this again. We here today recognize their sacrifice. We also recognize the passing of..." The Sandaime droned on, and Sasuke, tucked away in his mother's arms, tuned him out, and instead, he watched his brother, who had been given a place of honor up next to the Sandaime, shift awkwardly. He was brought out of his musings by a coup-like whisper he heard, which caught his attention.

"All I'm saying, Taicho, is that the Sharingan illusion that was cast will further separate-" An Uchiha clansman was furiously muttering into Fugaku's ear. Sasuke wished the man would shut up. That way led the path of violence, which only lead to B-A-D.

"Quiet. This is a time for mourning." Sasuke truest believed his father was part psychic.

"We also are also here to recognize the heroic deeds of Itachi Uchiha, who is so very young yet was the one who gave the Yondaime the opportunity he needed to seal the demon, and in doing so saved countless lives." The Sandaime pat a flustered-looking Itachi on the head.

0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0

What felt like too many hours later, they managed to escape all of Itachi's adoring fans, and they headed back out of the graveyard, dressed in their all-black funeral garb. (Even Sasuke had an all black wrap on.) When they rounded a corner, Itachi turned to Izumi and asked her simply,

"Where will you go now?" Sasuke did not miss their entwined hands, and from the subtle shaking feeling of concealed laughter, neither did their mother.

"Well... I..." Izumi stuttered when Sasuke waved ate her, adding his bit.

"Pwetty Nee-chan!" He flailed his arms for emphasis, much to everyone's amusement. A small giggle escaped his mom.

"That settles it! You'll come live with us, oh Future-Daughter-In-Law!" Mikoto announced, much to Itachi and Izumi's flustered sputtering.

o - o - o - o

**Well, that happened. It was long. I am sorry it was late.**

**I have no regrets.**

**Fic Recommendation: Relics of the Past, by Cyrro. This story is crack in its truest form, and I draw many a headcanon from its more fascinating world building. 10/10 recommend, and be warned that I may unintentionally reference it later in this story.**

**Dictionary of Japanese:**

**Sensei (Honorific): Occasionally used on its own, attached to the names of a teacher**

**Gomen: Sorry**

**Mina: Everyone**

**Kage Bushin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Jutsu**

**Ninadaime: Seventh (Hokage Implied)**

**Edo Tensei: The Jutsu used by Orochimaru & Kabuto to raise the dead, created by the Second Hokage**

**Genjutsu: Illusion Jutsu**

**Kami: G-d** **(My faith IRL says not to write G-d's name in vain, and this is a rule I usually try to follow - I wouldn't be able to toss out drafts with the full word written, and the habit translates to typing. We usually replace the o with a hyphen, if you ever see me do this and wonder why.)**

**Kanji: A form of Japanese written characters**

**Dobe: A rude nickname, most often translated to 'Dead Last'**

**Kyuubi: Nine-tailed demon fox**

**Rokudaime: Sixth (The Hokage part is implied)**

**Tou-san: Male parent, more formal than 'Daddy' or ' Dad' but less than 'father'**

**Taicho: Captain**

**Yondaime: Fourth (Hokage implied)**

**Sandaime: Third (Hokage implied)**

**Nee-chan: older sister**

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those in on the secret: TenTen, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Chouji, Kiba, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Hinata and (Sai but we have no birthday for him)

Location: Nara Compound

Naruto's Age: 1 year, 1 month, 6 days

o - o - o - o


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was tempted to open this chapter in limbo as well but I think if I write any more limbo scenes I may die. So... flashbacks. Feel free to skip them - they will get very much dark. I'm planning to open most chapters with a bit on how the people closest to the main character died in the first timeline. (Children, parents, teammates, teacher, etc).
> 
> Thank you guys so much for being so understanding in the delay for this chapter! I ended up just making this a double-length chapter, so this is my thank you for being patient!
> 
> /Rumor has it that every time someone comments, the author drafts another Omake to share/
> 
> Bolded Words - Author's Notes
> 
> Italicized - Telepathic Link
> 
> Underlined - Definition at the End of Chapter

o - o - o - o

**Chapter 3**

_In Which the Some Telepethay Happens_

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Alpha

Those In On The Secret: N/A

Current Location: Forest on the Border of Tea Country

Current POV: Shikadai

o - o - o - o

It was supposed to be a simple C-Rank.

An escort mission for a member of the Daiymo's Court who was going to a wedding in Tea Country wanted a ninja guard. In these war-torn times, that was hardly unusual - especially if you were in any way associated with Fire Country or Kohona. Shikadai had wondered aloud to his father one night, months ago, if this was the way it had been when he was a genin. This father had looked on him with his sad, broken eyes, (Ever since Chouza had died he had looked like that) and had laid down facts for him. The number of escort missions that were being taken out was unprecedented, more than everything else.

All the other missions were slipping down, but everyone wanted escorts bodyguards.

Usually, this would have been a good thing. Even in the first 3 Great Ninja Wars, an influx of escort missions would have been appreciated, longed for. The thing was, this war, the one with the Otsutsuki Clan, was unlike any before it. This wasn't a matter of who could attack the opponent's home or supply runs and front lines, it was... fear. Sasuke Uchiha and his daughter had spent hours searching for the Clan's homeland, still spent hours, but they couldn't find it.

The Otsutsuki Clan had no such problem. They had already wiped Iwa off the map, and in doing so, had found the records of the Fourth Great Ninja War, and the story of Kaguya's defeat - and the Edo Tensei. A week later, Kabuto had vanished, and then the Edo Tensei had begun to appear. Everyone had lost someone by that point, and to see them again, walking but not alive, killing your other loved ones, it destroyed morale.

And then there were the hit and runs.

Shikadai was in point, carrying the client with his remaining good arm - the other one was burned beyond use by a Katon jutsu the day previous. Inojin had Chouji with him, and she was turning a disturbing shade of green the poison that was in her bloodstream worked its way up through her Chakra network. Inojin was working his medical ninjutsu in tandem with what little Chocho knew, but all it seemed to do was slow the poison down a little. There were beads of sweat on Chocho's face, and Inojin was panting as he slowly ran out of chakra, still refusing to give up and stop treating the stab wound. They were on their last legs, and Shikadai knew it. He was determinedly not thinking about the chances that they would run into more enemies - a herd of White Zetsu had left them entirely wiped out.

There was a crash, and the branch Shikadai had been aiming to land on broke before he could get a boost, and suddenly he was plummeting down towards the forest floor, with no other places to land. He cast his eyes to the terrified face of his client, and the 15-year-old jounin channeled what little chakra he had left to her feet, cushioning her landing as they made contact with the ground. A sharp shot of pain flared in Shikadai's ankle, and he fell into a limp. A second noise behind them signaled that Inojin was there, behind him. He was running so low on chakra that he barely registered on Shikadai's chakra sense.

"Dai, what's going on? Those breaks, they weren't natural - and all of the branches bellow had been cut away!" Chocho was nearly yelling in frustration. Inojin lifted a weak hand to calm her, they could all feel the panic practically radiating from their client.

"It's alright ma'am, we'll make sure you're ok, there's no proof that was a trap for us." Shikadai lifted her to her feet and then struggled to his own, stubbornly ignoring the spike of pain in his ankle. Before she could say anything, however, a rustling in the bushes behind them caused all three shinobi to spin, and despite being dangerously low on chakra, Inojin drew a kunai and stepped in front of the others, somehow aware of Shikadai's ankle injury even without a verbal heads up. As the shrubs parted, a ghostly pale figure dressed all in white with black accents glided in, a few feet over the ground. Shikadai's heart just... stopped right there, even as his brain rushed to find a way out of this situation, even though he had no jutsu he could do, Chocho should avoid moving or die from the poison, and Inojin was about to collapse from Chakra exhaustion.

"Shinobi of Kohona?" The lithe Otsutsuki clan member spoke, eyes taking in their hia-te, and he was surely aware that they had been moving through treetops with a level of confidence that no one but a Kohona-nin could. Shikadai turned to their client.

"Mam, you have to run. The next village is just a little bit ahead, you'll be able to contact Kohona from there, and if we don't catch up, someone will be sent to get you the rest of the way." Shika stated quickly, then giving the woman a little push in the correct direction. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw their impending opponent raise a single hand.

"Die." And he shot three beams, one of which pierced straight through Shikadai's chest. From the grunt of pain and bone-chilling scream that both rattled his heart, the other two had hit his teammates. Using his good arm to push himself up, even as he knew he was going to bleed out in that clearing, and he watched as the man who killed him took off into the sky without so much as a second glance.

"Well, guys, for what it's worth, I loved being..." A coughing fit overtook Shikadai, and he coughed blood up, unable to keep speaking.

"On Team 10..." Inojin continued, shooting a flat smile at Shikadai, before turning to Chocho.

"... With you guys." She finished, before hitting the ground with a thump, either unconscious or dead, Shikadai didn't know and couldn't bring himself to check. Inojin's legs had given out, and there was a glassy look to his eyes which looked wrong in what had always been windows to his truest emotions. There was black hedging in on Shikadai's vision, and he closed his eyes for the last time and gave in to the weary feeling seeping through his very bones.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: Kohona 13 (without Neji because due is actually 3, not cool man)

Current Location: Nara Compound

Current POV: Shikamaru

Naruto's Age: 1 year, 1 month, 6 days

o - o - o - o

Shikamaru sat on the table, waving his chibi - baby legs as they dangled in the air, watching as his father trounced his subordinates and Nara clansman alike at shogi. A blond Chuunin walked in, likely there for his father's deal - beat me and I'll give you a week off - and for just a moment Shikamaru saw his wife walking in there instead, maybe with Shikadai following just out of sight. Shikamaru shook his head - that was one of his varying part-Yamanaka cousins, not his memory-family. His eyes instead caught on his father, setting the shogi board for yet another game.

His father's deep voice chuckled at something his opponent said, and the sound caused a little flutter of happiness to bloom in Shikamaru's chest. He had been living his second life for over a year now, and he doubted he would ever stop marveling at seeing the faces that had ever been dead wandering around him again.

He watched as a young hopeful Chuunin attempted the climbing silver attack against his father, which was defeated with ease, and the images of his final battle with Asuma flashed before his eyes, but Shikamaru allowed them to fade to the back of his mind, replaced with the teenage face he had seen in the market, eating a stick of dango with his brother.

The faces of Kurenai-Sensei and Mirai, who he promised to protect but let die anyways, those faces too had begun to ease their stifling grip on his heart, as images of Kurenai and Asuma vanishing into a tea shop together last week added themselves to the pool.

Inochi too had healed the wound from the fourth war, that final sacrifice that had been oh so noble but that had cut both him and Ino oh so deep. In front of Shikamaru's own eyes, a younger Inochi took a cup of sake from the table, laughing at something that Chouza had said on his left, and a small smile crept onto the lazy toddler's face.

His son's death - that was a wound that might never heal, a final cut that had long made itself known and would be there forever. Yet, the hurt seemed less now, a death that would never happen again. The cut had scarred over, still there, but less painful. With the other wounds healed the feeling of loss was no longer a boulder blocking his emotions, but instead a pebble in the stream of feeling.

So yes, Shikamaru missed the family he had built with Temari (Missed her like he would miss his left side if he were to lose it as he lost her), and yet... he wouldn't trade this second chance for anything. (She had been alive in the end with him, she would remember him when they finally saw each other again.)

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: Kohona 13 (If you haven't figured it out yet... there are also others. They will be revealed as the story goes on. Also... not Neji yet, but watch for this to change.)

Current Location: Nara Compound

Current POV: Shikamaru

Naruto's Age: 1 year, 3 months, 14 days

o - o - o - o

Inochi and Chouza brought Ino and Chouji to the Nara compound for the first time on Inochi's birthday, and the three of them were left to the tender care of a Nara teen named Kasuga, after suffering through Inochi's attempts to predict weather Ino's future husband would be Shikamaru or Chouji (Hint: Neither of the above is correct). Kasuga took one look at the three of them and sighed.

"Don't break anything, you three. Mendokusē ." The teen then fell asleep. (This had nothing to do with the sleeping pills Ino had slipped into his drink, as those took a full 5 minutes to kick in.) After checking that he was fast asleep, Ino shook her head.

"Kami help us all, it's genetic." She placed her hands on her hips, sending a glare Shikamaru's way, and a second one at Chouji, who had already begun to help himself to the cookies his mother had prepared and sent with him.

"What are you glaring at me for, woman? I haven't done anything yet!" Shikamaru protested, settling back into a sitting position.

"That's the problem, you lazy Nara bum!" Ino shouted, sinking back down into a sitting position on the ground.

"Hey, let's not fight!" Chouji interrupted. "Have a cookie instead."

"Mendokusē ." Shikamaru shrugged the argument off, struggling to keep the growing smile off of his face. From their expressions, Shikamaru could tell Ino and Chouji were experiencing similar difficulties. Ino snatched a cookie from Chouji and shoved it into her mouth in what appeared to be a desperate bid to hide the grin that was breaking out across her face.

"I missed you guys." Chouji broke what had become a companionable silence as Ino chewed.

"Yeah, I mean it's troublesome, but we should find a way to send messages back and forth so that we can keep in touch better. Not only do I want to stay in touch better - a year was far too long to be separated - but as things get more complicated with this new timeline, it is dangerous to not all be on the same page. Man, it's so troublesome."

"That might be the most I've heard you say in one go in a while," Chouji remarked.

"You haven't heard me say anything in about a year."

"Boys." Ino rolled her eyes. "Anyways, because I am naturally fabulous, I have a solution to your problem. It still needs some fine-tuning, but I needed a guinea pig anyways!"

"That sounds troublesome."

"Now Shikamaru-" Chouji started, but they both stopped when they saw the angry look grow on Ino's face, and her hands formed a sign familiar to anyone who had ever fought alongside a Yamanaka. She formed an O-shape with her hands. An angry tick on her forehead caused her eyebrow to shift a little, a visible warning sign of her anger.

"Fine then. If you wanted communication so bad Shika, you get COMMUNICATION!" The hands dropped the Yamanaka hand seal and formed a pair of fists which she slammed together, and Shikamaru found himself in a world that was a concerning shade of lavender, with concentric rings that glowed on the floor. On opposites sides of the circles stood an adult Ino, hands on her hips, still huffing angrily. A fully grown Chouji was in between them to the left. Shikamaru looked to the side opposite Chouji, and promptly ignored what he saw. (A barely visible yet still faintly present fully-grown Naruto asleep on top of a snoring Kurama's head.) Looking down, he was also in his adult form.

And the Shikamaru blinked, and he was back in that room in the Nara compound. Yet, he could still see that purple space as well, watch Kurama's chest rise and fall. It was... vaguely disorienting, and it felt like he was holding a smartphone in the corner of his vision the whole time.

"Mendokusē. What did you do woman?" Shikamaru asked, and let out a huff when Ino reached for another cookie rather than answer the question. (He couldn't blame her though, those were very good cookies.)

_"Geeze, you never change, do you?"_ Ino's mouth never opened to speak, yet Shikamaru could hear her voice in his head, as clearly as his own thoughts. In the purple space in his mind, Shikamaru saw Ino's mouth move.

"Whaaaa?" Chouji's mouth was open, but he snapped it shut as he consumed another cookie.

_"I joined us all in a telepathic link - it's something I was working on with Naruto before we were sent back in time. It's an edited version of the link that the nine Biju apparently have together. As long as we stay within Kohona, we should be able to keep in touch."_ Shikamaru blinked, grabbed a cookie, (those things were like drugs, they were super addictive!) then focused hard on the telepathic space-link-thing.

_"So that's why Naruto and Kurama are here? Because they helped create it? Mendokusē ."_

_"Sort of. They're aware we made the link since it's partially tied to Kurama's chakra in the first place, so we see them here, but unless I directly add them to the link, they won't be able to hear us. I'm fairly sure Kurama can at least see us through."_ Ino explained, shrugging.

_"Mendoskes."_

_"Cool."_ Chouji chimed in.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Sai, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Lee, Tenten

Current Location: Akimichi's Resturant

Current POV: Shikamaru

Naruto's Age: 1 year, 3 months, 26 days

o - o - o - o

The sixteenth generation of the Ino-Shika-Chou trio sat on a table outside the Akimichi Clan restaurant, watching the crowds go by, and it appeared to others as though not a word passed between them, but their heads still managed to move in perfect sync with each other. A woman walked by wearing a large, floppy pink hat, and Ino blinked.

_"That's such a stupid hat."_ Her telepathic avatar cracked a smile.

_"It's so floppy, can she even see out from under it? Man, I don't get civilians, that would be such a troublesome hat."_

_"I think Chocho had one like that when she was a child? She used to walk into walls."_ The mental image that was conjured by that statement caused Ino to telepathically burst out laughing, and brought a smirk to Shikamaru's face.

All three of the members of the seventeenth Ino-Shika-Chou trio looked up in surprise when the bell above the door to the restaurant rung, and two people came in. They looked to be about the same age, and both wore the Uchiha crest, although the boy also sported a hia-te as well. Neither of them looked to be more than seven or eight.

_"Guys isn't that..."_ Chouji began.

"Come on Itachi-kun! We're here to celebrate your graduation, and you know you can't eat always eat dango! Fugaku-sama and Mikoto-sama would flip out when they found out we had nothing but dango while they were gone!' The girl, dressed in a purple dress, was pulling on Itachi's reluctant hand.

_"I like her. Girl's got spunk."_ Ino decided. Shikamaru allowed his smirk to bleed through onto his true body and two-year-old face. Then he looked down and froze.

_"Ino, could you add someone else to this link?"_

_"Uh... Yeah, probably? But what brought this on- oh."_ A much smaller face peeked out from behind Itachi, and Sasuke waved at them. Chouji waved back as Ino made discrete hand signs behind her back. An older Akimichi woman began to lead the three Uchiha towards a table, and Ino activated the Jutsu, adding Sasuke to the telepathic link. His adult form appeared next to them and blinked.

Sasuke walked into a wall.

As Itachi and the girl who Shikamaru didn't know fawned over Sasuke (who was still having trouble walking in a straight line), the other three time-travelers were telepathically cackling.

_"Smooth, Uchiha."_ Shikamaru snorted at him. Sasuke's face screwed up in concentration.

_"Shut it, Nara. What is this anyway? Also, why can't I see properly?"_ His adult form gestured, even as his true body wobbled back and forth while stumbling to a booth.

_"He's picking this up pretty fast,"_ Chouji commented casually.

_"This is a telepathic link I created with Naruto's help. I have no idea why you can't see straight, none of the rest of us had that kind of problem after like, five minutes?"_ Ino explained. Sasuke frowned.

_"Hn."_

_"It's probably an Uchiha thing, since his eyes are so good with the Sharingan, losing some of his depth perceptions is a bigger deal,"_ Shikamaru muttered. Sasuke gave a one-armed shrug.

_"Hn. So, is it just us four?"_ He asked, barely concealed horror in his eyes as they flicked over the other people present. (Ino had figured out how to hide the presence of Naruto and the Kyuubi. The solution amounted to 'shove it in a corner out of sight'.) Team Ten glanced at each other.

_"One would think you don't like us, Uchiha."_ Shikamaru actually attempted a pouting look.

_"He probably just likes his team 7 better."_ Chouji gave a noncommittal shrug.

_"It's just the four of us... but not for long!"_ Ino promised, before breaking out in cackles that had everyone inching away from her.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Those In On The Secret: **(From now on this line will only appear at the start of the chapter or when it changes, I think you get it.) (Also I'm tired of typing it out.)**

Current Location: Yamanaka Compound

Current POV: Ino

Naruto's Age: 1 year, 3 months, 27 days

o - o - o - o

The puzzle of where to find the other members of the Kohona 13 kept Ino up late that night. She knew Sasuke, Shikamaru and Chouji felt the same - they'd all been chatting about it long into the night. (They'd figured out where to find everyone but Sai, to Ino's much disappointment.) A quick glance at the clock revealed that it was around 7:30 in the morning. Letting out a long sigh, Ino rolled out of bed, pulling on a purple and yellow dress over her head. Ino stumbled her way down the hall to where her dad was doing his breakfast dishes. She pulled on his pant leg, and when he looked at her she turned her puppy eyes all the way up.

"Can we go to park?" (Ino was a believer in the concept that if you removed the articles from a sentence, it sounded more child-like.)

_"Real articulate, Yamanaka."_ Sasuke's snark entered her mind. For the sake of today's quest she was projecting what she saw onto the wall of their link, something she had been testing last week.

_"Shut it, Sasuke-kun."_ The avatar stuck her tongue out. Her father looked down on her and smiled.

"Sure Ino-chan, I have the day off today anyway. Just let me get my stuff. We can even get dango on the way." Inoichi swept Ino off the ground, and she giggled like a crazy person as he settled her on his shoulders. Ino got a faceful of hair, but she didn't mind (much). Somehow, she didn't think she'd ever mind being around her father, being able to grab and hold him outside her dreams. "Dear, we're going out to the park!" Ino's father hollered up the staircase as he handed his bag to Ino for her to hold, then they bounded out the door together.

o - o - o - o

The first stop of the day is a dango stop, and Ino internally cheered. It had come up the night before that Sasuke knew Kiba often went for dango with his sister before she went to the academy each morning. She had counted on Anko's influence on her father to drive him to the dango stand, and the purple-haired kunoichi had not let her down.

As her father went to order a set of the dumplings for the two of them, Ino cast her eyes around for the target Inuzuka, while she stood on a stool where her dad had set her down. A small, white tail caught her eye, and Ino followed the puppy with her eyes as she made discrete hand signs behind her back. Ino pointed the jutsu at Akamaru and yanked him into the telepathic space. Sasuke made a face at her and the puppy.

_"What's your problem, Uchiha? Dislike the dog?"_ Shikamaru asked as Ino watched Akamaru give a startled yelp in the real world.

_"Cats are better."_ Sasuke declared.

_"I'll tell Kiba you said that, Sasuke-kun!"_ Ino smirked as Kiba came around a corner, with his sister next to him. Ino flicked through her now-familiar three handsigns (even that weird one that was just a fistbump between her hands that Naruto had created), and, when Hana turned her back on Kiba, dragged him into the link too. Kiba nearly dropped Akamaru in surprise.

"Come on princess, let's go to the park!" Ino's dad scooped her up, handing her a sweet bun, which she munched away on as Chouji Shikamaru did their best to explain the link to Kiba.

o - o - o - o

Ino and her father and arrived in the park about five minutes and one wild roof run later, and she had an uncontrollable grin on her face, and a half-eaten stick of dango in her mouth. She was listening to Kiba and Sasuke go verbal rounds over the age-old question of dog vs cat. (Ino was very proud of that chaos.)

Ino's father set her down, and he was immediately sidelined by a chuunin she didn't recognize. She seized the opportunity and scampered away, knowing where she might be able to find Sakura. She found the pinkette curled on a bench, surrounded by three other girls. One of them had a bluish-purple hairstyle where her hair was pulled over one shoulder. Her two friends, (brown afro, and spikey red hair) stood on either side of her, but the two girls projected a vibe of 'I'm a cartoonishly evil grunt', and Ino promptly disregarded them.

Sakura sat on the bench, her body curled into a ball, face buried in her knees. Her shoulders shook, and at first glance, it looked as though she was sobbing. Inside the link, Sasuke whipped around in anger, stopping halfway his argument with Kiba.

_"If they've hurt her, I swear..."_ He started.

_"Down boy, she's alright."_ Ino fired back.

_"And the alpha male says he likes cats."_ Kiba snorted.

"Aww... poor little forehead girl, so sad. Ino was dragged out of her thoughts as she prepared for her dramatic entrance.

"Go... go away, Ami." Sakura's voice was raw, which to someone who didn't know her very well could lead them to believe she was crying. Ino did know her, however, and recognized the sound of Sakura's barely controlled laughter. Apparently, Sasuke recognized it as well, because while his face remained a face of pure rage, the tension drained from his shoulders.

"Why, forehead girl? I think we're just pointing out how big it is so that everyone can come to see the stupidity of that freak of nature!"

_"I'm going to kill her."_ Sasuke deadpanned.

_"Are they mocking her forehead? Why? That's dumb."_ Chouji added, false cheer covering his irritation.

_"That they are, and yes it is,"_ Ino responded before leaping in-between Sakura and Ami, a fist full of the cosmos flower in her left hand. "Leave her alone Ami!" She cried out, tossing the flowers into their mouths just for old times sake, even as she could feel Shikamaru raising an eyebrow at her.

"Ew, what the heck?" Ami cried out, uselessly pawing at her mouth.

"I'd leave her alone and go was out your mouths girls, the cosmos is used in most shinobi poisons after all!" Ino chirped, and the three bullies suddenly had somewhere else to be, and fled, claiming they had something else to do other than pick on the abnormalities of Sakura's forehead.

"But it's only the roots that are poisonous, right Ino?" The two girls shared a look before Ino flicked her hands through the handsigns and yanked the pinkette into the link.

o - o - o - o

The two girls walked hand and hand through the park towards the woods behind it, chatting amiably.

"So, Sakura, Shika mentioned he had seen you with Lee recently?" Ino asked. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and a small growl echoed in the link.

_"Down boy, green's not your color."_ Kiba patted Sasuke on the back.

_"Get off, dog breath."_ Sasuke's eyes flashed dangerously, Sharingan just below the surface. Sakura gave a small telepathic giggle, and Sasuke met her eyes and took a long deep breath.

"Oh yeah, Lee and I have been doing some Taijutsu training some mornings."

_"Wow,"_ Chouji muttered.

Respect girl, that dude is crazy." Ino smirked.

"Oh come on, Lee-kun isn't that bad. Besides, it's a matter of knowing the right trigger words with him. In fact, I was just on my way to meet with him now, if you'd like to tag along?"

_"Go on Ino, you've still got a couple of hours until you need to go collect the other clan kids, and however much Naruto likes ramen he won't be at Ichiruka's yet,"_ Shikamaru stated.

_"Yes sir, Mr. Smart One, sir."_ Ino telepathically saluted Shikamaru, which got a snort from Chouji. Sakura and Ino pushed through the brush in the physical world, and Ino found herself in a clearing with a single training post in the center, and a tiny bibi Lee furiously jumping rope, eyebrows as bushy as ever (they were hilariously out of proportion on his tiny body, they looked about the same size they were before they sent back in time.) Lee's hair, rather than be in his traditional bowl-cut was flying up and down behind his head in a long, eye-searing braid.

_"I could have lived my whole second life without seeing Lee with long hair."_

Shikamaru deadpanned.

_"Ditto." "Agreed"_ Sasuke and Chouji chimed in, practically over each other.

_"Guys, don't be mean! Lee-kun's look just takes some getting used to, that's all."_ Sakura protested, but there was a teasing glimmer to her eyes.

_"I never thought I'd say this, but the bowl cut looked better on him,"_ Ino stated, and then added Lee to the link without warning. Lee's avatar blinked.

_"Hey, Lee. Have a chip."_ Chouji passed his bag to Lee, who had appeared on the Akimichi's left.

_"Hello, My Youthful Comrades! How glorious to see you again in this Most Youthful Space!"_ He pumped his hands up and down before adopting the Nice-Guy pose. A collective wince went around.

_"Yosh! Embrace your youth!"_ Sakura mimicked him, and Ino was fairly sure there were stars in Lee's eyes.

_"Oh no! It's contagious!"_ Chouji exclaimed.

_"Or it could be evolving,"_ Ino added and relished in the panic that followed.

o - o - o - o

One intense Taijutsu workout later, Ino and Sakura bid Lee farewell and headed back towards their parents, serious conversation blending back into childish babble. (They were talking about favorite colors). Ino's father came into view, sitting at a table with several other parents, including Sakura's father. He turned as Ino dragged her feet to a stop, Sakura doing the same since Ino had been dragging her all the way over (since they had been in the parent's line of sight.)

"Tou-can, Tou-san! This is Sakura-chan! She has a big forehead, but that's okay because she's pretty anyways, and she's super cool, and she's my new bestest friend ever, and we're both kinda hungry. Sakura-chan likes ramen, and I like ramen, can we go get ramen together?" Ino turned her puppy eyes up and rocked back and forth on her feet while firing rapid-fire speech at her father. He gave her an owlish blink, before turning helplessly to the other parents.

"Otou-san, can we go get ramen, please?" Pretty please with a cherry on top?" Sakura turned to her father.

"Sakura, we have to go get your mother's dry cleaning first, but maybe we could do lunch together after?" The second part was directed towards Ino's father, who nodded.

"I have an errand I can run as well. Meet you at Ichiruka's in an hour?"

"Sure, then the girls can get the ramen they are Ram-anding."

_"Was that a ramen pun?"_

_"How youthful!"_

_"Demanding and Ramen? Sakura, your father hurts my soul."_ Shikamaru chimed in.

Ino couldn't think of a suitable response because her father scooped her up, he shushined to the front of a familiar weapon's shop. Ino was internally jumping for joy - this was Tenten's father's shop. She could also feel the building sassy comment about acting her age from Kiba, even as Chouji gave a good-natured chuckle.

Her father set Ino down inside the shop with instructions to be very careful and not to cut herself while he picked up the shuriken he had ordered. Ino had agreed, and then as soon as his back was turned she had bolted around a corner to where she found an angle she could see little Tenten pestering her older brother as she held a kunai handle for him and he attached the blade. Ino prepared her jutsu, but carefully waited until Tenten had set it down - in combat, the girl was unstoppable with a blade, outside one had to avoid distracting her, or she would accidentally pepper herself with tiny cuts.

As the blade was set into a cooling bin, Ino aimed and fired off her jutsu. Tenten's adult form flickered into sight as her 4-year-old form gave an owlish blick, and accidentally dropped the towel she was holding.

_"Yosh! Tenten, how youthful you look, oh most Youthful Weapons Master!"_ Ino could hear those capital letters, and that terrified her. She made up for this by tripping Akamaru and watching the chaos as Kiba whirled on Sasuke.

_"Oi! What the hell Sasuke? Tripping Akamaru because he isn't a cat?"_

_"I have literally no idea what you mean, Dog Breath."_ Sakura sent Ino the look before moving to break up the fight.

_"Hn."_ Sasuke glared at Kiba before his avatar flickered out of the link. (Something outside the link must have taken more of his attention, the body in the link only manifests when more than 65% of the attention is being presented there.)

_"Sorry, got to go. My Kaa-san's calling us for lunch."_ Kiba vanished as well.

_"See you later Kiba!"_ Ino called.

_"For those who don't speak Uchiha, Sasuke shrugged something similar,"_ Sakura added.

_"You can't use the verb shrugged in that context!"_ Shikamaru protested. Sakura stuck her tongue out at him.

_"I just did."_

o - o - o - o

When Ino and Sakura arrived at the ramen stall, the two girls claimed seats next to each other, and their fathers sat against the wall on Sakura's left. It only took the younger blonde to follow the sounds of rambunctious laughter to its source - the two Uzumaki sitting at the other end of the stall. (Naruto had told them all about his parents, on a cold night not long after Kakashi-sensei had been killed.)

Ino went to form the hand seals, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her, even as both she and Sakura continued rambling about favorite colors (purple was obviously superior to red, forehead!), but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder on her, even as both she and Sakura rambled on about favorite colors. (Purple was obviously superior to red, forehead!)

_"Someone's watching."_ Came Sakura's voice through the link. Everyone else had left over the course of the past 15-20 minutes to go eat with their various family members.

_"Thanks, forehead."_ Ino gave a tip of her head back. She kept babbling on, a new topic at hand.

"Honestly Ino, Princess Nikko is the best Ninsney princess!" Sakura argued. "I mean, she's always happy and she makes everyone happy!"

"Nu-uh Sakura, Princess Taki is waaay better, cuz she's super strong and gets to save her boyfriend!"

"No way Ino!"

"You know I'm right, Sakura!"

"Nu-uh." Sakura's eyes never leave Naruto. Everyone else is giving the pair of Uzumakis a wide berth, and Ino knows that the two jinchuuriki (each hosting half the Kyuubi) are on the receiving end of the many distrustful stares.

Their ramen arrives, and the party of four digs into their meals. Ino is reaching for her chopsticks when she hears something that makes her blood boil.

"Over there, isn't that the boy...?"

"Those two are the demons, I don't know why Sandaime-sama lets them stay."

"Hush! We can't talk about that!"

Sakura breaks her chopsticks, and Ino grabs that moment to drag Naruto into the link, confusion created by Sakura's strength hiding her hand signs, as Sasuke pops backs into the link. Inside the link, Naruto blinks before waving at Sasuke.

_"Hey everyone! I guess you got this jutsu working, huh Ino! That's so cool!"_ Naruto enthusiastically waved at her now.

_"How do you have so much energy, dobe?"_

_"How do you always manage to always be such a teme, teme?"_ Naruto made a face at him.

_"Hn."_ Sasuke had apparently used up his word quota for the day, so Naruto turned and began to catch up with Kiba and Chouji.

"Sakura, which do you like better, the normal park or the ninja park better? I like the ninja park better, but the kids at the normal park are nicer." Ino made her mom and Sakura eyes caught her's, no longer distracted by Naruto, and the pinkette barely visible had to be the blonde's rapid-fire speech.

"I don't know Ino, I've never been to the ninja park, but it sounds really cool!"

"What? Tou-san, Sakura's never been to the ninja park, can we go to the ninja park, pretty pretty please?" Ino begged her dad, puppy eyes active again, and she could see Inoichi start to cave.

"I... I don't know, Ino, honey..." The start to object and Ino fluttered her eyes again.

_"Ino you look like ChouChou."_ Chouji deadpanned, popping into the link.

_"I don't know, puppy eyes are a ruthless strategy."_ Tenten agreed, following him in.

_"Yosh! Make the best use of all of your youthful abilities, Ino-chan!"_ Shikamaru he appeared to immediately see Lee performing his nice-guy pose, having popped in seconds before the Nara.

"Pleeeease Tou-san? Pretty pleeeease?"

"Yeah, please Ino's Otou-san?" Sakura added her two cents.

"Oh, fine after eating, we'll go."

_"My mom never caves that easily,"_ Kiba complained, flickering in with food crumbs around his mouth.

o - o - o - o

They found Shino first, sitting in the woods, watching a ladybug climb up a leaf. A boy neither Sakura or Ino recognized sat next to him, and they were making casual conversation.

_"Oh! That's Tourne, dattebayo!"_ Naruto confirmed when the question of the boy's identity came up.

_"Who, baka?"_ Kiba questioned.

_"I was getting to that, dog breath! He's like, Shino's adopted brother that Danzo took because Tourne is the son of some old Aburame whose name I can't remember, and he has special poison beatles. I met him when he was Edo-Tensei-ed in the fourth war."_

_"Oh, right. He was on the old fart's personal guard."_ Sasuke added, and everyone looked on in surprise. _"What? Hn."_

_"I thought you'd reached your limit on full sentences for the day, Sasuke-kun."_ Ino explained with a shrug.

" _Hn."_

_"Just proving her point, Uchiha."_ Shikamaru pointed out. Ino discretely formed handsigns and managed to catch Shino while Tourne's back was turned. He approached in the link.

_"Heya bug boy! Guess what this is?"_ Kiba boisterously announced.

_"No need. Why? Because kt is obvious where we are. We are in-"_

_"You sure figured out quick,"_ Chouji commented. Shino wilted.

_"Yeah, you took it well. Uchiha walked into a wall when we first hit him with the link."_ Shikamaru grinned.

_"Wait, what, seriously? Fancy eyes, that's just sad."_ Kiba deadpanned.

_"Arf!"_ Akamaru agreed.

_"Don't be mean to Sasuke-kun, being attached to depth perception is an Uchiha thing. Sarada was the same way."_ Ino smirked.

_"Yeah, don't worry about it Anata,"_ Sakura added.

_"Hn."_

o - o - o - o

They found they Hyuugas on a blanket sharing a shack, their minders around, flirting with another chuunin. Ino smirked as Hinata braided Neji's hair, and hit the Hyuuga heiress, pulling her in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> o - o - o - o
> 
> Dictionary of Japanese:
> 
> Sensei (Honorific): Occasionally used on its own, attached to the names of a teacher
> 
> Taicho (Honorific): Captain
> 
> Sama (Honorific): Used for people you respect, usually translated to 'Lord' or 'Lady'
> 
> Kun (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger boys or boys you are close with.
> 
> Chan (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger girls or girls you are close with, connected with being cute.
> 
> Anata: Sakura's nickname for Sasuke, often translated to "love"
> 
> Nikko: Sunshine
> 
> Taki: Waterfall
> 
> Gomen: Sorry
> 
> Mina: Everyone
> 
> Kami: G-d
> 
> Kanji: A form of Japanese written characters
> 
> Dango: Sweet dumplings
> 
> Dobe: A rude nickname, most often translated to 'Dead Last'
> 
> Mendokusē: Shikamaru's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated either as 'troublesome' or 'what a drag'
> 
> Yosh: A term used mostly by Gai Lee, just a general affirmative (yes, alright, etc)
> 
> Dattebayo: Naruto's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated to 'believe it' or 'you know'
> 
> Kage Bushin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Jutsu
> 
> Edo Tensei: The Jutsu used by Orochimaru Kabuto to raise the dead, created by the Second Hokage
> 
> Genjutsu: Illusion Jutsu
> 
> Sandaime: Third (The Hokage part is implied
> 
> Yondaime: Fourth (Hokage implied)
> 
> Rokudaime: Sixth (Hokage implied)
> 
> Ninadaime: Seventh (Hokage Implied)
> 
> Kyuubi: Nine-tailed demon fox
> 
> Tou-san: Male parent, more formal than 'Daddy' but less than 'Dad'
> 
> Nee-chan: older sister
> 
> \- this chapter is 7,171 words long. this makes me happy.-
> 
> o - o - o - o
> 
> Timeline: Beta
> 
> Those In On The Secret: Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Sai, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Lee, Tenten, Neji
> 
> Current Location: Hyuuga Compound
> 
> Current POV: Neji


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey this is a chapter  
> It exists  
> Uh  
> Not much else to say tbh  
> They told a 4-year-old confidential secrets because it never occurred to them not to.  
> 10/10 smarts

o – o – o – o

Timeline: Alpha

Location: Hyuuga Compound

POV: Hanabi

o – o – o – o

In retrospect, Hanabi had probably jinxed it. She felt like she should get a pass though, it had been lovely outside when she had said so! Besides, how was she supposed to know that stating such a fact would bring about the beginning of the end?

The day had started for the Hyuuga Heiress when she rolled out of bed but discovered that the floor was not the icy cold she was expecting, but instead could be described mildly warm, even. Her favorite outfit had just finished being washed, so she slipped that on and headed outside. Casting her eyes around the courtyard, it appeared that the snow had finally begun to melt, there were hints of green popping up. The sound of hurried footsteps stopped her, and she looked up to see a member of the Branch Family come around the corner.

“Hanabi-sama!” The man propped to attention, and Hanabi made a ‘go on’ gesture with her hands. “Your father was called away to a meeting of the clan heads, and he say to tell you when you awoke that you were in charge.”

“Oh? Alright, thank you for letting me know.” She cast her eyes around the courtyard. “It truly is lovely out today, isn’t it?”

“That it is La-.” The poor man was interrupted by a series of explosions that launched them both back, and the whole compound was blown apart from the inside. A particularly large chunk of debris caught Hanabi’s companion in the forehead, and she could hear the crack and the thumb of his body. Only a particularly well time Kaiten (If she does say so herself) saved Hanabi from the same fate. All around the ruins a number of Hyuuga were picking themselves up, but if this was the total number of survivors from her clan, over nine-tenths of the Hyuuga were dead. (Was this how Sasuke had felt?) She turned to where the explosion had come from, and there stood a pale woman with horns on her head and long white hair. Hanabi’s heart stopped. She knew about the Ōtsutsuki Clan, who didn’t? She knew what had happened to Udon’s team, one death among hundreds.

“It would seem I missed a few.” The woman said, and her hair lashed out, wrapping itself around Hanabi’s ankle, as well as all of the others who rose. From her position, she could see a few children who were simply still on the ground. Hanabi struggled, but the hair prevented her from channeling any chakra, and the rod of bone ash went straight through her chest.

It was a strange feeling, turning to ash.

o – o – o – o

Timeline: Beta

Those in on the Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji + Neji

Location: Hyuuga Compound

Naruto's Age: 2 years, 9 months, 13 days

POV: Neji

o – o – o – o

As long as Neji can remember, (ever since his fourth birthday) Neji has had a secret best friend, Hinata-nee. Hinata-nee might be younger than him, but she’s the coolest. She’s a Time Traveler! She’s a year younger than Neji, but she’s also 39, so she’s his nee-chan, not his imotou. Hinata-nee doesn’t understand though. She says he’s older and calls him nii-san. She’s silly, like most adults. Neji is still working on her.

Hinata-nee’s friends are smarter though. Her teammate, Kiba Inuzuka is a little loud, but he’s smart enough to understand when Neji talks about ages, and both he and Shino Aburame understand how super cool Hinata-nee is. Hinata-nee’s husband (She’s old enough to be married, of course she’s the older one of the two of them!) is a loud blonde named Naruto Uzumaki, and he’s really strange. Neji is still unsure about him. He’s kinda really dumb, and Hinata-nee deserves the best, but Neji isn’t sure Naruto is the best. (I mean, he has a giant pet fox named Kurama who just sleeps all the time, and that’s just strange.)

The other two of her friends who are super cool are Tenten-nee and Lee-nii. They say they were the other Neji’s teammates, and that he’s a member of their team by extension. Neji can’t imagine that because Tenten is a weapons MASTER, and she never misses. Lee-nii is super weird. He’s always weird, and he talks about ‘Youth’ a lot, whatever that means. Neji still likes him though, no one can match Lee-nii’s Taijutsu. He kinda likes Tenten-nee better though, she’s been helping him out with his Jyuken.

Tenten-nee teaches differently than most of the other clan members. She’s really nice, and she never gets upset when Neji messes up. Instead, she reaches over and just helps him correct it. Her hands are really soft too, and the callouses are gentle but strange, no one in the Hyuuga clan has callouses like that. Sometimes, Neji will mess up his katas just to feel her hands. Not that Neji would ever admit it, even under threat of Hinata-nee’s tickle attacks. He’s pretty sure Lee-nii knows anyways. He keeps talking to Neji about it being part of his Springtime of Youth.

Lee-nii is crazy. Lee-nii is very different from the Hyuuga.

(Neji likes him a lot.)

o – o – o – o

Location: Hyuuga Compound

Naruto’s Age: 3 years, 2 months, 27 days

POV: Neji

o – o – o – o

Hinata-nee’s third birthday rolls around, and the link is empty when Neji wakes up. Neji doesn’t mind, he usually is awake before the others are, or at least before they finish their private training in the morning. (He’s never quite sure who falls in which category.) Neji’s father shakes him awake, and helps him get dressed, but there’s a small frown on his face the whole time.

“Chichue, why are you sad?” He asked, and Neji’s Chichue blinked.

“I’m not sad.” A smile crossed his face, but Neji knows from his training with Sakura-nee that it was a fake smile. Sakura-nee always talks about her teammate Sai who always use to wear a fake smile. Neji looked at his father and just nodded and gave him a big smile. This make him sad again for some reason.

“Don’t be sad, Chichue.”

“I’ll see you outside soon Neji.” Hizashi left, and Neji sat on his bed and entered the link. The older members could be in there and pay attention to the world, but Neji couldn’t get it quite yet. But that was ok, because they said it made them tired to do so, and they’re grownups. When Neji opens his eyes in the link, Hinata-nee was there, having arrive just before him. She’s sitting down, and she looks sad. Tenten-nee was there too. Neji scrambled over as fast as his small 4-year-old legs would take him, and climbed into Hinata-nee’s lap.

 _“Don’t be sad, Hinata-nee. You and Chichue are both sad today, why are you sad?”_ Hinata-nee smiled at him, and this smile looked more real than the one his Chichue had warn earlier. She wrapped him into a hug, and Tenten-nee rubbed his hair. Hinata-nee looked at him and took a deep breath.

 _“Neji-nii-san, what do you know about the Main and Branch families of the Hyuuga Clan?”_ Neji frowned. He didn’t understand how relevant that was, but Hinata-nee and her friends always talked to him like he was an adult and told him the most truth they could, so it had to be important.

 _“Chichue says that there’s the Main House who leads the clan, like you and Hiashi-sama. Then there’s the Branch Houses who protect the Main House and the Byakugan, right? And since I’m in the Branch House, it’s my duty to protect you, right?”_ Hinata-nee nodded, and Tenten-nee knelt next to them.

 _“And do you know how to tell them apart Neji?”_ The clanless woman asked.

 _“Well, all the branch members have their foreheads covered, right? And main family members leave theirs bare?”_ Tenten-nee nodded, but didn’t smile at him, which was sad because Tenten-nee has the prettiest smile Neji’s ever seen.

 _“Do you know why they cover their foreheads in the Branch Houses, Neji-nii-san?”_ Hinata-nee asked. Neji shook his head, although he was pretty sure it was just tradition, but if Hinata-nee had asked him, there had to be a deeper reason behind it.

 _“There’s a seal on their forehead that they all branded with called the Caged Bird Seal.”_ Tenten-nee’s voice was quiet and sad.

 _“The seal’s purpose was to destroy the Byakugan if you died so that no one could get ahold of the clan’s precious doujutsu outside the village. However, it also allows members of the Main House to punish disobedient Branch House members with physical pain, and theoretically destroy their brains.”_ She draws Neji into a hug as he processes the information. Neji may be young, but he’s still really smart. (Prodigy, the Uchiha calls him. Genius, says Lee-nii.)

 _“Are… are they going to mark me today? Because you’re old enough now to be recognized as the heir?”_ Hinata-nee gave a small, sad nod. Tenten-nee squeeze Neji’s hand.

 _“Don’t worry, Neji-nii-san. I won’t let then use it to hurt you, I’ll protect you and teach you how to avoid being in a situation where they would activate it. But it’s going to hurt when they first put it on.”_ Neji nodded, he trusted Hinata-nee to keep him safe. He took a deep breath. Tenten-nee pulled him away from Hinata-nee and into her lap, even as the Hyuuga girl made a noise of protest.

_“I’ll be here, Neji, and Lee will be here as soon as he can. We’ll be right here with you the whole time, Lee will join us once his mom leaves for work. You’ll have to be brave, but it will be ok.”_

_“Alright. I – I think I can do that.”_ Neji twisted around and wrapped Tenten-nee in a big hug. (He really liked hugging Tenten-nee.)

 _“Oof! Hey Neji, you’re almost to big to do that in my lap anymore!”_ She and Hinata-nee promptly launched into a revenge tickle attack, but for once he didn’t mind because at least they were both smiling now.

o – o – o – o

Neji stood with his father and the other members of the Branch Families lining the entrance to the Tatama shrine. (A sacred place to the Hyuuga the way the Naka shrine is to the Uchiha, located directly across the village from it.) Neji’s Chichue stood just to his left, hand on Neji’s shoulder. They both stood at attention as members of the Main House slowly filtered by, heading into the shrine.

Hiashi-sama stopped in front of Neji’s father. Clinging to his leg was a young Hyuuga girl in a salmon outfit. She waved at him and sent him a small smirk before ducking back behind her father’s legs.

“She’s a cute girl, Chichue.” Neji pointed her out to her father, who frowned at him.

“Yes, Hinata-sama is only three, so she is still very cute.” Neji’s Chichue commented halfheartedly. In the background, Neji could hear Hiashi-sama talking about taking him under his wing, but since Hinata-nee had explained this whole process to him, Neji mostly ignored it. Instead he focused on his shock at seeing Hinata-nee in the flesh for what felt like the first time since he had met all of her friends in the link. It had been dark out the other times.

He had a hard time matching the image of the tall, long haired woman he know with the much smaller short haired girl he had seen. Logically, he knew that the Hinata-nee he knew was what she had looked like before she was sent back in time, and that a three-year-old would have to be smaller. (He was pretty sure Hinata-nee had mentioned short hair once too.) The hardest part for him was to connect the shy, fearful actions and meek aura that Hinata-nee projected in the flesh with the confident way she spoke and carried herself in the link. (Chouji-nii had been teaching Neji how to read people.)

In the end, Neji received the seal stoically, with an unchanging expression of determination. (He retreats into the link and lets the tears fall into Tenten-nee’s lap instead. She doesn’t say anything, just rubs his back soothingly.)

o – o – o – o

Location: Hyuuga Compound

Naruto’s Age: 3 years, 2 months, 29 days

POV: Neji

o – o – o – o

A few days later has Neji lying in bed, staring at the roof, mind full of questions. His new seal was wrapped in bandages on his forehead, and his brain was full of questions about the day he had received it. He kept an eye on the link the way Ino-nee had been teaching him to, and lifted his hand towards the ceiling, blocking the light flow through his fingers, and thinking back on the way Hinata-nee had acted.

She had been really shy and hidden from everyone, which was really unlike her as far as Neji knew. Earlier today Neji had also watched a training session of hers, and she had been preforming at a way that was way below what he knew her to be capable of. This Hinata was (dare he say it?) really bad at the Jyuken style. People called her weak. Neji just... couldn’t understand it. There had to be a piece he was missing. He watched the link as Kiba snarked at Shino, whose mouth moved in a deadpan response. (Neji could now always see inside the link, even if it was a little blurry, but it took a lot of effort to manifest himself there and listen in or speak. Ino-nee said it was the same for the rest of them except her because she created the link.) Neji shifted into a position for meditation on his bed so that anyone who came in would assume he was deep in thought and leave him alone. After all, he had a lot of questions and he expected to take a fair amount of time to get all the answers. He closed his eyes, and felt himself dive backwards into the part of his subconscious where the link lay.

He opened his eyes to the violet light of the link just as Shino disengaged from Kiba, and they both looked up at his arrival. They both glared at him, although Shino’s was hidden behind his visor. A shudder ran down Neji’s back – he goes to great length to avoid being alone in the link with Shino and Kiba, they had apparently never forgiven the other him for… something. (Neji had yet to build up the courage to ask what.) But for Hinata-nee, and for the answers he needs, he’ll brave it.

They all stand there, awkwardly looking at each other for a few moments to long, waiting to see who will get over their emotional barrier first. Shino clears his through eventually and approaches Neji, but Akamaru (The giant dog always comes with Kiba) flanks the bug user, eyes narrowed.

 _“Hello Neji-kun. What brings you here right now? Hinata is training right now.”_ Shino states. Kiba draped and arm around his teammate’s shoulder, nodding.

 _“I- I know that! I just wanted to ask you guys a few questions about Hinata-nee, that’s all!”_ Neji stated, looking them both in the eyes, his stutter appearing when he was nervous like it did from time to time. (Hinata-nee’s husband found that really funny, although Neji didn’t understand why, he couldn’t control it!)

 _“Oh, really kid? Then shoot, you’ve come to the right place! What do you want to know? We won’t tell you her secrets though.”_ Kiba announced and Neji nodded. Ok, they were civil enough. Maybe the earlier aggression was something they weren’t aware of? These were good signs.

 _  
“When Hinata-nee is around other clan members, she’s really shy and pretends to be worse than she is at the Jyuken and other Taijutsu. Do you know why?”_ Neji asked, and Hinata-nee’s teammates blinked at him owlishly. (Neji assumed they both did; it was kind of hard to tell behind Shino’s visor.)

 _“Why is Hinata acting so shy, you ask? It is simple. It is because when were actually young, Hinata was almost painfully shy, and had very little talent. It was to the point where people questioned her right to be the Hyuuga Heiress. This is because when she was shy, everything people said she took to heart, which made her even more reserved and shy.”_ Shino explained.

_“Yeah! And Hinata used to have a bad stutter, right Akamaru?”_

_“Yip!”_

_“It was so bad, Hinata could barely get the words out, can you believe it? She was always tripping over her speech when we were kids.”_ Kiba chimed in with his dog. Neji paused for a moment to let that sink in before responding.

 _“So she’s behaving like that because when she was actually that age she was like that? But why, does she want people to look down on her? I’m not sure I understand.”_ Shino opened his mouth to respond when the telltale sound of someone entering the link cut him off. (Naruto says it sounds like a lightsaber – whatever that is.)

 _“Here’s Shikamaru. He can explain better than we can. Why? Because he explained it first, it was his idea.”_ Shino explained, which made sense, Shikamaru-nii was very smart and had lots of ideas. Neji turned in time to see Shikamaru’s eye brow raise in an unspoken question.

 _“Shikamaru-nii, why is Hinata-nee acting the way she did when she was actually this little? People will look down on her, she doesn’t need that!”_ Shikamaru sighed.

 _“Well Hyuuga, it’s complicated. The short version of it is that we want to try to keep the timeline mostly the same because for a long-time, things were going very well, and we think we can prevent the last bits with forethought and better preparations.”_ Neji bit the inside of his lip as he considered that.

 _And the long version?”_ He asked.

 _“The world and the actions of people is driven by the way they view you and the bonds you form. In order to steer history, we want to at least form the base of the right bonds_ _to drive history the way it did before. Also, we want to form the same relationships we had before, based on the same memories the old ones were – since our memories will always color all of the bonds we form. Our plan is to remain like this until the end of our first chunnin exams, when we will slowly ease back into our true selves.”_ Shikamaru explained with a sigh. _“Troublesome Prodigy. Mendokusē.”_ A small smile touched Neji’s face. People might tell him he’s a prodigy all the time, but coming from someone like Shikamaru, a true genius, it meant something. Neji closed his eyes, intaking the information. (He’d been doing a lot of that today.)

_“So why don’t you do that around me? Pretend, that is.”_

_“Why would we, little Neji?”_ Kiba asked bluntly.

 _“Why? It is obvious. We do not pretend because you are one of us. You are a member of the Konoha 13, this knowledge is yours by right.”_ Neji blinked. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but that wasn’t it.

_“Ok then. I’ll help. Tell me about the other me, please? I don’t want o be the one that throws you off.”_

And so they did.

(Neji kinda saw why Hinata-nee’s teammates didn’t like him.)

o – o – o – o

Location: Uzumaki Family Home (formerly the house of Minato Namikaze & Kushina Uzumaki)

Naruto’s Age: 4 years, 11 months, 15 days

POV: Naruto

o – o – o – o

Naruto loved his mother. He loves her more than he thought he would ever be able to express. He loved her so much, that when he felt her chakra coming upstairs, rage and sadness fighting for dominance, Naruto went into high alert. Flicking his Chakra Sense over the area around Kushina, Naruto immediately saw what was irritating her, walking by her side was Danzo Shimura, the world’s prickiest-prick. Next to him was a pair of guards, and another two trailed behind, one of whom had a very familiar chakra signature-

Naruto dropped into the link where Ino was chatting with Sakura, and once he could hear the conversation, he could tell it was all medical jargon.

 _“Sai is following Danzo just outside my home, 3 blocks from the Hokage’s tower.”_ He saw Ino start to rise, but Sakura caught his eye and gave a nod of understanding. Naruto left the link just as the front door of his house swung open.

“And while you’re away, I’d be happy to watch the little Jinchu-”

“No Shimura. My son is a capable human and can watch himself.”

“Be reasonable, Uzumaki-san, he would be happier-” Naruto barreled into his mother, wrapping his arms around her. (Naruto loved hugging his mom. Kushina gave the best hugs.)

“Welcome back, Kaa-san! How was the border crawl? Who’s the old geezer? Did you do something new with your hair? You look really pretty. You’d be proud of me, I never set the house on fire while you were gone!” He bounced up and down, clinging to her long green skirt. Danzo took a physical step back, almost visibly rethinking all of his life choices, even as Naruto stopped to take a breath.

“Hello Naru-chan! It was long and dull, the geezer is Danzo Shimura, my least favorite councilman, yes, I tried putting my hair in a ponytail today, thank you, and I’m glad you followed my one rule and didn’t burn it down.” She rubbed his forehead and ruffled his hair. Danzo gave a pointed cough, even as his guards were staring at Kushina in unfiltered awe for keeping up with the stream of chatter. Kushina turned to face him.

“Time is short, Uzumaki-san.”

“I am aware, Shimura-sama.” The honorific was stated with an almost mocking tone.

“What’s the big-man wrinkle talking about, Kaa-san?”

“Naru-chan… I have to go away for a long while. A whole bunch of years, although I’ll be back when the Daiymo comes for big festivals. Now that you’re almost old enough for the academy, I’m eligible for long term missions again, and Shimura-sama has nominated me for a position on the Daiymo’s guard alongside the Sandaime’s younger son.” Naruto’s stomach fell like it had fallen out of his gut. He could read the subtext – she was being sent away by Danzo so that he could try to induct him into Root. “I’m so sorry, Naru-chan.”

“Don’t worry about it, Kaa-chan! Go be a kickass kunoichi, and write me, ok?” Naruto shoves his tears down in a small, dark corner of his mind. They can come later.

“You’re the best, Naru-chan. Of course, I’ll write you. And hey! Where did you learn language like that?” A practically demonic aura began to spread from around her. Danzo never could read a room through.

“Uzumaki-kun, you are welcome to come stay with me-” Kushina slipped away to her room as the elder began speaking, fully aware of the coming chaos that was about to be unleased. The boy was an Uzumaki, after all.

“No! My Kaa-chan doesn’t like you, so neither do I!” Naruto turned one of his hard developed Hokage Glare on the elder, and then faster than the guards could react, Naruto did what he had always wanted to and kicked Danzo Shimura in the balls, much to the gall of the man’s many body guards.

“Alright, all packed!” Naruto’s mother returned from her room that she had vanished to, took one look at Danzo, and burst out in honest to g-d cackles, and Naruto joined her as the root members glared at them, helping Danzo to his feet. “I guess you want to stay here then, Naru-chan? Mikoto will bring food over for you, we kinda figured you’d want to be here.” Naruto nodded.

“Is that all you’re bringing, Kaa-san?” Naruto gestured to the small pack on her shoulder, even as she ducked into the kitchen, and came back out with a well-loved frying pan, his mother’s weapon of choice. She held out her hand, and he took it, and they headed out towards the village gate.

“Yup, this bag contains pre-packed scrolls of Fuinjutsu and ninja tools, but I’ll be away for 5 years, so I’ll be provided with a new wardrobe there. Besides, I have my Loving Pan with me, and it’s all the weaponry I really need!” She gestured to the frying pan at her side, and Naruto giggled. His mother’s skill with her weapon of choice was rivaled only by Genma’s skill with the senbon. She was also terrifying.

“Can I still study my fuinjutsu while you’re gone?” Naruto asked his mother. He’d do it anyways – he had never had access to the Uzumaki ancient textbooks & techniques before, and he was just reveling in having something to connect him to the almost extinct clan. It was just going to be easier with his permission.

“Of course! Just let Mikoto know before you try a new seal, alright?” Naruto scrunched up his face and nodded. He wouldn’t, he had to pretend he hated Sasuke, (Dude was still a bastard – that did make it easier) but it would make her feel better.

All to soon, the mother and son arrived at the gates. Danzo had decided not to accompany them, his pride still injured over the blow he had received to his family jewels. As Kushina wrapped him up in one more hug, Naruto couldn’t stop the tears that started to leak out.

“Goodbye, Naru-chan! Remember your three probations and be careful, and don’t burn the house down!” Kushina pats him on the head and is running over to her traveling partners – Asuma Sarutobi and a member of the Daiymo’s court.

“I will, Kaa-san!” Naruto called after her, and then he just stood in the center if the main road until he could no longer see her retreating figure, leaving at an easy civilian pace down the strait road.

Naruto keeps standing there, as if that will make his surviving biological family reappear. He stands there, tear flowing now, when he overhears civilian murmuring.

“Hey, isn’t that the demon boy?”

“I know, I think it is! I didn’t know he could cry!”

Don’t listen to them, he tells himself.

Demon boy.

Tune them out.

Demon boy.

I’m the boy who found the Gondaime Hokage.

Demon boy.

The student of a sannin.

Demon boy.

(Stop Naruto, they don’t matter.)

Demon boy.

Village Hero, savior from Pain.

Demon Boy.

War Hero.

 ~~Demon Boy~~.

Hokage.

 ~~Demon Boy~~.

(I’m fine)

(You’re a demon boy)

(I’m FiNe)

Demon brat.

Father-

Demon-

Oh gods, Bolt and Hima.

Demon. Demon. Demon with only Demon for family.

Suddenly, it sinks in that his kids are dead and that he has nowhere to mourn them. It feels like a betrayal, like he truly doesn’t care for his family, like he truly is the monster they say.

Demon.

Naruto turns and flees, running through the market place. He runs into people and jostles them, but he doesn’t hear their protests.

Demon.

He needs to get out of the village, the glares and the anger and by somewhere quiet, and he’s apparently projecting because Ino and Sai look up from where they’re chatting in the link, a concerned look on her face, and a gesture of _get in here this instant_.

D E M O N.

Naruto ignores Ino and flees Konoha through a hole in the wall that he remembered from his genin days. No one will notice him missing, not even Mikoto, who means well but the talks of Uchiha rebellion will have her mind occupied.

K Y U U B I.

Kurama is sleeping, has been since the day he was sealed in this new body of Naruto – whatever Hima did was almost entirely powered by the fox’s chakra.

The boy is the demon fox.

Naruto heads towards the cave where he last fell asleep in the first timeline, to build a memorial. The link vanishes from his peripheral as he passes through the wall. He starts and stumbled a little, slightly jarring.

This new anger, this new loneliness – he will pour it into something for the two greatest thing he has ever created, and that’s a promise.

o – o – o – o

When Naruto reached the cave, he expected to find an area lush and green, similar to the rest of the forest he had been running through for all of the two-day trip in backwoods fire-country. That wasn’t what he got, however. About 30 minutes away from the mouth of the cave, a patch of burned soil caught the blonde’s eye. The boy filed the information about it away but kept going – maybe there had been a forest fire nearby.

Just because the second Edo-Tensei of Madara had burned all of the fire country forest to the ground didn’t mean he was responsible for all forest fires ever.

By the third unconnected patch of burned ground, Naruto was concerned, especially when a fourth one appeared right in front of him. This area was far from anyone else and anything else, that was why they had been here in the first place, so the chance of it being the result of a jutsu battle were slim. Chances were no one else had even come across this strange phenomenon.

Staring at the patch of burned soil in front of him, a voice in the corner of Naruto’s mind reminded him to test strange occurrences with a clone rather than his true body came to him. (It sounded like an ungodly fusion of the Pervy-Sage and Kakashi-sensei, and the boy quickly shoved that line of thought far form the light of day.) Naruto created a Kage Bushin and it crossed over the very evident line from green to scorched brown and black. Then, in an instant, the bushin was a 39-year-old again, seemingly forward (back?) in time. The clone dispelled, and Naruto carefully took the long way around the patch.

When he arrived at the cave, however, entering the ruined swaths of forest became unavoidable as they formed a ring around the whole hill. Naruto had promised himself that he was going to that cave though, and he didn’t break his promises. Besides, other than being larger and a strange tingling, his clone hadn’t reported anything life threatening. Naruto headed into the burned zone towards cave, ignoring the way these longer limbs felt a little strange.

Reaching his destination, Naruto had another issue – the entrance was caved in. He summoned a small army of clones, and Narutos 1-30 began to clear the rubble as the original poked around the area. He was operating under the assumption that for whatever reason, these small patches of land were patches of the previous time. However, neither Boruto nor Sarada’s bodies lay in the area, but they had definitely been cornered by Kabuto here, Naruto had sensed the battle going down with his Chakra Sense. (Naruto didn’t know if he should be worried, or if that was a good thing, or what it meant. Time travel made his head hurt, dangit!) A wash of memories sweeps through Naruto, letting him know that his clones had cleared the rubble from the cave entrance, and that Himawari’s body wasn’t present either. Naruto took that to mean people could not be pulled backwards in time by this… time discrepancy.

He’d have to ask Shika about it once he was back inside the range of the link.

Ducking back into the cave, the Nanadaime Hokage was shocked – all of the packs of those who had spent the night in the cave were exactly where they had been left, totally undisturbed! All of the little keepsakes that meant so much to them, that they had sifted through the rubble of their villages to save, they sat there, untouched! Naruto could see the chakra blade that Shikamaru had received from Asuma sticking out of the Nara’s pack, and a sketchbook poked out from Sai’s bag.

Naruto lunched for his pack, and reached to grab a photo album from within, when his hand hit an unfamiliar weight. He grabbed that instead, pulling the ornately decorated scroll out of his bag. He immediately noted the Rokudaime’s seal which had been broken in the strange way Himawari used to always open seals. (Split down the middle, but there was a fingernail track in a ring around the break.) Unrolling the scroll, Naruto saw the words ‘Time and Space Techniques’, and a new world of possibilities opened. (Coincidentally, Naruto also understood where the idea to send them back in time had come from.) Naruto rolled the scroll back up to deal with later, when wiser minds could look over it with him. He had some… unique ideas for what to do with the Kojin-Tekina Jukin Jutsu, if it did what he thought it did, but that was just from a little peak at the scroll! (At least, that was what Naruto thought that Jutsu did. He might be totally wrong.)

Naruto drew a brush and ink from Sai’s pack and a blank sealing scroll from Tenten’s and set to work sealing everyone’s packs into the scroll – he would sort them by village and send them to their owners with a summon later.

Tucking the sealing scroll and the scroll of techniques under his arms, Naruto offered a few words for his kids, and vowed to be back to complete his original task before heading back towards the village – he had a feeling they would have wanted him to take care of this important task among the living first.

o – o – o – o

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was written in word  
> Uhhhh that’s about it  
> I amused myself imagining Himawari trying to figure out how to open a wax seal but failing.
> 
> o – o – o – o   
> Dictionary:  
> Dictionary of Japanese:  
> -Sensei (Honorific): Occasionally used on its own, attached to the names of a teacher  
> -Taicho (Honorific): Captain  
> -Sama (Honorific): Used for people you respect, usually translated to 'Lord' or 'Lady'  
> -Kun (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger boys or boys you are close with.  
> -Chan (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger girls or girls you are close with, connected with being cute.  
> -Nee (Honorific): Used for girls who you view as an adopted/actual big sister  
> -Nii (Honorific): Used for boys who you view as an adopted/actual big brother  
> Anata: Sakura's nickname for Sasuke, often translated to "love"  
> Nikko: Sunshine  
> Taki: Waterfall  
> Kami: G-d  
> Kanji: A form of Japanese written characters  
> Dango: Sweet dumplings  
> Dobe: A rude nickname, most often translated to 'Dead Last'  
> Mendokusē: Shikamaru's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated either as 'troublesome' or 'what a drag'  
> Yosh: A term used mostly by Gai Lee, just a general affirmative (yes, alright, etc)  
> Dattebayo: Naruto's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated to 'believe it' or 'you know'  
> Kojin-Tekina Jukin Jutsu: Personal Time Jutsu  
> Jyuken: Gentle Fist  
> Kaiten: Rotation  
> Genjutsu: Illusion Jutsu  
> Fuinjutsu: Sealing Jutsu  
> Doujutsu: Visual/Ocular Jutsu  
> Sandaime: Third (The Hokage part is implied  
> Yondaime: Fourth (Hokage implied)  
> Rokudaime: Sixth (Hokage implied)  
> Ninadaime: Seventh (Hokage Implied)  
> Kyuubi: Nine-tailed demon fox  
> Tou-san: Male parent, more formal than 'Daddy' but less than 'Dad'  
> Nee-chan: older sister  
> Imotou: Younger Sister  
> Chichue: Father  
> Kaa-san: Female parent, least formal  
> o – o – o – o   
> Timeline: Beta  
> Those in on the Secret: Tenten, Lee, Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji + Neji  
> Location: Academy  
> Naruto's Age: 6 years, 3 months, 2 days  
> POV: Iruka


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was… not supposed to be a full chapter, but it just happened to take over the whole thing. Iruka… did not want to give up my muse. In other news, this set up a whole lot of the plot in the future. I’m fairly sure I was clear how, but next chapter we return to the point of view of the time-travelers. (Finally, I know) Also, I started an Avengers fanfiction as well, if you’re interested?  
> In this house we love and respect all ships, but we mostly do cannon pairings. If a character *doesn’t* have a cannon pairing, i.e. Kakashi, the story might leave them alone or possibly develop a relationship as it goes on. This means that to the guest who commented about it, Naruto will be with Hinata and Ino with Sai, but I’ll consider any and all requests for who Anko will end up with.

o – o – o – o

Chapter 5

_In Which a Teacher Does Some Teaching and Some Learning_

o – o – o – o

Timeline: Alpha

Location: Konoha Academy

POV: Iruka

o – o – o - o

Iruka knew the first sign something was wrong on the fateful day was when the Hyuuga clan kids (jokingly named the Hyuuga Bunch) failed to show up for class one day as a whole. That, and the sounds of the explosions. That was also a fairly good sign. Those started about 5 minutes before Iruka was due to call attendance. They sounded farther away, and bit by bit you could hear explosions getting closer to the academy. Students left their desks to peer out of the windows, pressing their faces against the glass panes. Over a young student’s head, Iruka could see smoke rising from buildings in the direction of the major clan compounds.

Before anyone had any time to process what they were seeing, Iruka was moving back to his office and pulling turning on the school’s PA system.

“This is your headmaster speaking. Please follow your Sensei and proceed to the evacuation locations in an orderly fashion. Please remain calm.” He turned off the PA system and pulled a pouch of kunai from inside a drawer in his desk. He rose from his desk when the walls of the building shook, and he stormed out of his office and down the stairs as fast as his aging body would take him, cursing his own biology the whole way.

He rounded a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. Standing in the center of the large atrium at the end of the staircase was an Otsutsuki clan girl. She didn’t look as big as the others that had been reported attacking Iwa, but there was murder in her eyes. Her back was to Iruka, but she was towering over the pair of 8-year-old first years. He pulled a kunai and lobbed it straight into the girl’s back, and she let out a cry of pain, rounding on Iruka. He drew a second kunai blocking her first attack.

“You two, run!” He directed the students as both he and his assailant stumbled back a little from the force of the collision between them. The first child stumbled to her feet and ran, the other a little more hesitant but being pulled by her friend, even as she threw a last look over her shoulder at Iruka. Iruka threw himself after them, planting his feet in the doorway, blocking the Otsutsuki teen’s path.

She launched another assault, and Iruka blocked that one weakly, throwing all his strength into holding his position. She stopped a few feet back and raised a fist. An eye opened on her palm. The violet eye turned yellow, and a single line of lightning raced forward, striking the kunai Iruka had raised, an attempt to shield himself. The lightning made contact and traveled up his arm, and every part of Iruka’s nerves, his body, was on fire. The principal fell to his knees, anger in his eyes. He watched, his assailant floating over his body as Iruka closes his eyes for the last time, a helpless feeling filling his final moments.

o – o – o – o

Timeline: Beta

Location: Konoha Academy

POV: Iruka

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 3 months, 2 days

o – o – o – o

Iruka couldn’t help but feel that there was something off about his class. He was wrapping up a math lesson and everyone appeared to be paying perfect attention. He was fairly sure someone was mocking him. A good third of his class was glassy-eyed, seemingly paying attention yet also checked out. (At least today was a quiet day.) Despite none of them paying attention, Iruka could still expect high grades from (most of) the kids in his class, especially the clan kids.

Sasuke Uchiha sat in the third row, leaning forwards towards the board at the front of the room, hands folded on the desk, supporting his chin. He had a stare that was dead on ahead, but the boy hadn’t moved in over 10 minutes. Iruka wasn’t even sure he was blinking. Next to him, in a seat that changed kunoichi hands almost daily, Ino Yamanaka watched him, doodles of the Uchiha covering her notebook. (She was a surprisingly good artist for her age, and there were doodles of a particularly creative version of him with short hair slipped in there.)

Across the aisle from them, Shikamaru Nara was passed out on the desk, only occasionally stirring to accept a chip from his best friend Chouji Akimichi. Iruka had no idea where the chips came from, he had made attempts to confiscate the food since it was at least theoretically forbidden in class but could never find them. All he’d ever gotten was the brief explanation of ‘Akimichi Clan Secret’.

Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame filled the row in front of them, and the three of them were always making eye contact and giggling over an un-shared joke whenever Iruka turned his back on them. Below them were two rows of civilian born students, most of whom Iruka sadly speculated would drop out before they could pass a graduation exam. Notably in the center of them sat Ami, who was doodling hearts around Sasuke’s name. (Iruka thought all of his kids were honestly too young for crushes.)

Sakura, a pink-haired girl sat in the front row next to Naruto Uzumaki, although they were as far apart as the desk would allow. Naruto kept shooting longing looks at the girl, who in turn looked through the bickering civilian twins behind them at Sasuke. Iruka had to give her credit though she was taking better notes than anyone else we could see.

The bell rang through the classroom, and Iruka turned back to the chalkboard.

“Make sure you et a worksheet off of my desk before you go, homework is questions #1-20, although you can skip #7 and #13. Have a good weekend, see you on Monday!” There was a rustling of papers and the sounds of book bags snapping shut. Naruto shot out the door first, nearly mowing down Iruka as the man stepped away from his chalkboard.

“Bye Iruka-sensei!” The blonde waved his hand on his way out, worksheet clenched in that fist. Iruka resigned himself to receiving a very wrinkled worksheet if he got one at all. The other students filtered out more leisurely. Sasuke left with his brother, and Shikamaru and Chouji left together. Ami’s mom waited for her outside. (Iruka understood Naruto’s desired to leave before the families appeared.)

o – o – o – o

Location: Konoha Marketplace

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 3 months, 3 days

o – o – o – o 

Iruka carried his papers under one arm, and a pan in the other, heading towards the mission’s desk. He had agreed to cover a shift for Radiou, who was injured and on bed rest at his home. He pushed the door open and was greeted immediately with the sight of Izumo doing Aoba’s nails with something that looked suspiciously like Anko’s missing nail kit. Iruka pushed the door open all the way, and a mop of silver hair lifted off the desk on Izumo’s left.

“Kakashi? They have you working the mission’s desk?” Iruka called out in surprise. A snigger came from one of the couches (Those had appeared there one day. No one knew where they came from, but people definitely appreciated them.) in the corner, where Kotetsu was reading what looked like a trashy adventure novel. Kakashi groaned.

“Mission went really wrong, and they don’t want to send me back until they got a psych eval.” The ANBU groaned as the others wince sympathetically, as Iruka crossed the room, setting his paper down on the desk next to Aoba, and plopped into the seat. He uncapped his pen and flipped over the first test in his stack. It was 3:15 pm, and mid-afternoon was always a slow time in the mission’s room.

“What are you working on, Iruka?” Izumo had finished his coat on Aoba’s hands and was peering at his new source of entertainment.

“History exams. They’re almost decent this time.” Iruka made a few marks in his red pen on the paper. “Almost.: He winced as he peaked at the name – it was Naruto’s test.

“Is that Naruto’s exam?” Aoba asked, and Iruka noted the way Kakashi’s head gave a minuscule snap up at the boy’s name, filing that away for a later date.

“Yeah, it is,” Iruka responded. He flips through a pile of graded tests to find another exam – it belonged to a boy named Satami, a civilian born boy who sat directly in front of Shikamaru and Chouji. “And this test is no different from the others in terms of score.”

“He’s still doing the thing where he’s exactly one point behind the person behind him?” Aoba responded, and Kakashi nearly chokes on air. After a coughing fit, he looked up.

“He’s doing what?” Kakashi asked.

“Nothing on purpose, I’m sure. For nearly every exam he’s taken in my class, he’s exactly one point behind the second-lowest exam score. I mentioned it to Izumo one day when I was getting drunk with these idiots, and they’ve decided it’s some sort of conspiracy.” He made air quotes around the word conspiracy.

“Oi! Don’t mock us, this is going on nine exams in a row!” Kotetsu had put his book down and was waving a fist in Iruka’s direction.

“Nine times is hardly a coincidence in ANBU.” Kakashi chimed in, and Iruka turned a glare on him.

“Both Naruto and Satami try their best, and Naruto is always crushed when he gets a bad grade back! Neither boy has anything to gain from this!” Iruka was shouting now.

“Unless…” Aoba had barely opened his mouth when Izumo cut him off.

“No, I am sure it’s not your stupid time travel theory, you moron. That’s just ridiculous.” Iruka turned, eyebrow raised. However, before he can respond to that, the door swings open, and there is a struggled to snap back to attention, hide the nail polish and tests, and to look like serious ninja business is happening in the largely empty room.

A pair of people stepped into the room, a mission report in one hand. They wore dark cloaks with two red stripes around the base of the cloak. They were buttoned up all the way so that very little below the neck could be discerned. Their faces were hidden by a pair of ornate masks. The taller figure’s mask had a snake on it, and a mop of black hair came out from the top of it, some of which hung down over one eye over the mask. Iruka took a guess from what of the figure he could make out was that the figure was male and probably older than anyone else in the room, just from the way he carried himself.

The other figure was shorter, coming up a little past the snake-man’s shoulder. From the way the cloak fell around her, Iruka estimated the figure was a she. Her mask depicted a slug, and a pair of green eyes peered out from behind it. Pink hair fell down around her shoulders and a good way down her back, tied out of her face with a worn old red ribbon. The woman stepped forward, a mission report in her hand, and set it on Izumo’s desk.

Iruka shot a look at Kakashi across the room – didn’t the ANBU report somewhere else? The copy-nin shrugged in response.

“Mission report from Genin team 4 – the mission was mislabeled. Snake has an incident report.” Iruka barely blinks before it hits him – there are members of the new search and rescue team, the Konoha 13. No one, except maybe the Hokage knows who they are, and even the Sandaime hasn’t confirmed his knowledge yet.

“Hn.” Her companion (Snake) grunted. An Uchiha then, there were lots of them around. He passed an incident report over to Izumo as well. The chuunin blinked in surprise but accepted it.

“Thank you.” Izumo stammers, and snake nods in response.

“Let’s go, Snake.” The pinkette, (Slug, probably?) speaks to her partner.

“Hn.” The cloak shifts and Snake puts a single hand on his hip. Slug spins around to face him.

“Don’t you sass me, mister.” She cracks her knuckles, and Snake gives a small, poorly concealed start.

“We have to meet Toad, right? Let’s go.” The probably an Uchiha spins and takes off through a window.

“Wow. A whole sentence.” The pinkette grunted and took off after him, leaving the desk workers blinking. Kotetsu’s mouth was hanging open.

“Any idea who that is Hatake?” Kotetsu asks as Izumo files the reports. Kakashi paused before giving a slow, hesitant nod.

“They weren’t ANBU. Those two had flat masks, the ANBU ones were three dimensional. Besides, they only feature the face of the animal, but theirs have the whole animal on it.” Kakashi folds his hands on the desk but leans back. Aoba looks up with a smirk.

“I might have an idea. Have you heard about the new search and rescue team?” Kakashi blinked and turned to face him.

“No. What?” There was actual confusion in the small visible portion of the man’s face. (Iruka almost considered that a win. It was an emotion after all.)

“There are thirteen of them in total, they wear cloaks in animal masks. No one knows who they are, no one sees any of them off duty. People doubt even the Hokage knows who they really are. But they always show up when there is a mislabeled mission, and they save the Shinobi before completing the mission.” Aoba shifted and grinned.

“I’m sure the Hokage knows who they are. Who else would set it up? But yeah, they’ve saved a lot of lives now. People are calling them the Konoha 13.” Iruka added as he pulled his tests back out. Kakashi made a small noise of interest.

“We have a group that meets to figure out who they are if you’re interested.” Aoba added. Kakashi blinked before pulling his book and tuning them out.

“He doesn’t want to go to your conspiracy club Aoba.” Izumo poked the older man as he sat back down.

o – o – o – o

Location: Konoha Academy

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 3 months, 5 days

o – o – o – o

Iruka pulled his hair back into a ponytail as he headed into his classroom. He placed his papers on his desk and watched as his students scurried into their seats. Naruto gave a small wave, which Iruka returned. (Despite warnings, on most occasions the boy was sweet, and Iruka was developing a soft spot for him.)

“Alright, everyone! Class is starting now. Please put things away and clear your desks. This means you Ami, mirror away please.” Iruka claps his hand, and his students shift into more attentive poses sitting down into their desks. “If you all will get your history books and turn to page 153, we can begin.” A hand was raised in the front row, and Iruka nodded at her to speak as he reached for his lesson plan.

“Um, Iruka-sensei, can we talk about the 13 today instead?” She asked hesitantly. Iruka blinked in surprise. “It’s just... they saved my brother the other day, but no one can tell me much about them.” Iruka considered for a moment.

“I don’t have a problem with it, so long as you all behave yourself now.” There is a fury of nodding – this may be the most attentive he’s seen his class in the whole time he’s been teaching here. All of the kids are checked in, even Shikamaru. “In that case, open your book to page 267…” Iruka flips open table of contents. “267! Everyone turn to page 267.” He heard pages turning, and with the book in one hand and a stick of chalk in the other, he turned to the blackboard. He scrawled the term ‘Rescue 13’ at one end of the board, and ‘ANBU Black Ops’ at the other end, drawing a line to connect them.

“ANBU…?” He hears someone mutter, he isn’t sure who.

“The Konoha 13, or Rescue 13 as they were originally called, are an early forefather of the ANBU. They were founded during the reign of the Shodaime hokage, as part of a collaborative effort between the first gokage.” He scrawls a note on the board under the first bubble, the one marked 13, marking the date the organization was founded. “It was called the rescue team, and it had 30 members in total, divided up among the villages based on how many shinobi lived in each one of them. Konoha was and still is the largest of the great shinobi villages, and so we had 13 slots on the team. Kumo had 7, Suna 4, Kiri had 4, and the brand new Iwa had 2.”

Iruka draws 30 stick figures on the board as he spoke and marked them all with the symbols of the 5 villages. While he’s at it, he adds the dates of the three shinobi wars to the board, as well as the coronations of the four hokage, continuing the timeline he is creating on the board, before he turns back to face the class, most of whom are taking notes.

“The rescue team’s goal was to protect the lives of any and all shinobi, and the members were some of the most talented in each village, the elite of their classes. They could not be ordered to do anything by the authorities in the village, but instead could be called by any shinobi in the field who believed they were incapable of finishing their mission, and the rescue team would finish the mission and pull them out. Because the team consisted of all the different villages, they could go wherever they needed to.” Iruka looks up when he sees hands go up. “Satami?”

“Well, this sounds like a good thing, right? So why did it go away?” The brunette boy asks.

“Satami, that is a good, complicated question. In the end, it was the Shinobi wars that tore the team apart.” Iruka looked around and saw confusion on the faces of his kids. “Okay. We’ll do an activity soon outside. Why don’t you meet me in the open field out front in 10 minutes, and we’ll do an activity.” There are cheers from choice students, and they all file out of the room in order to head off to get snacks and run around. Iruka follows not fat behind, mentally dividing the kids into four teams.

The students trickled into the open field, Iruka watched with smug satisfaction at the looks of surprise cross their face. The space had been divided into four spaces with doton walls (courtesy of a board Jounin Iruka had nabbed off the streets) and end of the walls had several spots for students to slip through. Inside of each section, there were large piles of hollow colored cubes. Iruka clapped his hands together, drawing the attention of the class back to him, conversations dying down.

“Alright, everyone! Welcome to the battle simulation! I originally had planned this for later in the term, but I think it will help us understand now. We are going to simulate the first shinobi war through a game, and I want you guys to try and figure out what happened to the rescue team as we play. The first step is to separate into four teams.” Iruka puts a hand to stave off the growing murmuring students. “I have already separated up the teams. Once you’re in your teams, I want you guys to pick the three team members who are going to be your group’s rescue squad.” Iruka lifted a handful of gold stars. “If you get picked, you’ll wear one of these, they’re stickers.”

Iruka divided the teams and cast his eyes around to see the gold stars. From team 1, Sasuke Uchiha, Yoru Sarutobi, and Ami wore the stars. Team 2 had selected Shiree Sarutobi (Yoru’s sister), Chouji Akimichi and Tamta Yuhi. Team 3 had Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno, and Wel Hagane. Team 4 picked Kiba Inuzuka, a worried-looking Hinata Hyuuga, and the rest of the group pointedly ignore the star Naruto Uzumaki wore. (Iruka is going to have to watch group 4, he can already tell.)

“Alright! Now that we have our groups and our mini rescue squad, I’ll explain the game. Each team has a pole, and a pile of stickers with your team number, and a selection of colored blocks. As a team, you can arrange the blocks however you like. The goal of the game is to get two of your team’s stickers on each of the other’s team’s poles. When you enter another team’s area, they can tag you. If you’ve been tagged, you then have to stand in place until a member of a rescue squad can not be tagged! Does everyone understand?” Iruka looked around, the students nodded. “You have ten minutes to set up your areas to make it difficult to get the pole, go!” Iruka started the stopwatch he had in had had in his left hand and watched the kids scatter.

Kiba was the first one to pass along a map of another team’s base, but it was Shikamaru who stepped in front of a member of the rescue squad. The members of the rescue squad were fighting each other now, yelling as they were blocked several times. Iruka let it go on for a couple more minutes before he dropped down from his tree, whistling to get everyone’s attention.

“Alright, I’m going to stop the game here. I want you all to think about how this worked and write a page on how this went for history class next week, and why I had you do this exercise for tomorrow, and off to lunch you all go!”

o – o – o – o

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> o – o – o – o  
> Ahhhh it’s been a crazy couple of months, I am so sorry this is so late, but I do have more drafts now! This chapter was mostly worldbuilding, but the next chapter will just mostly be nonsense and silliness. I mean, I’m letting Kiba drive.  
> o – o – o – o  
> Dictionary of Japanese:  
> -Sensei (Honorific): Occasionally used on its own, attached to the names of a teacher  
> -Taicho (Honorific): Captain  
> -Sama (Honorific): Used for people you respect, usually translated to 'Lord' or 'Lady'  
> -Kun (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger boys or boys you are close with.  
> -Chan (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger girls or girls you are close with, connected with being cute.  
> -Nee (Honorific): Used for girls who you view as an adopted/actual big sister  
> -Nii (Honorific): Used for boys who you view as an adopted/actual big brother  
> Anata: Sakura's nickname for Sasuke, often translated to "love"  
> Nikko: Sunshine  
> Taki: Waterfall  
> Kami: G-d  
> Kanji: A form of Japanese written characters  
> Dango: Sweet dumplings  
> Dobe: A rude nickname, most often translated to 'Dead Last'  
> Mendokusē: Shikamaru's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated either as 'troublesome' or 'what a drag'  
> Yosh: A term used mostly by Gai Lee, just a general affirmative (yes, alright, etc)  
> Dattebayo: Naruto's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated to 'believe it' or 'you know'  
> Kojin-Tekina Jukin Jutsu: Personal Time Jutsu  
> Jyuken: Gentle Fist  
> Kaiten: Rotation  
> Genjutsu: Illusion Jutsu  
> Fuinjutsu: Sealing Jutsu  
> Doujutsu: Visual/Ocular Jutsu  
> Shodaime: First (Hokage implied)  
> Sandaime: Third (The Hokage part is implied  
> Yondaime: Fourth (Hokage implied)  
> Rokudaime: Sixth (Hokage implied)  
> Ninadaime: Seventh (Hokage Implied)  
> Gokage: Organization of the 5 kage  
> Kyuubi: Nine-tailed demon fox  
> Tou-san: Male parent, more formal than 'Daddy' but less than 'Dad'  
> Nee-chan: older sister  
> Imotou: Younger Sister  
> Chichue: Father  
> Kaa-san: Female parent, least formal


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they have an ultra-secret clubhouse, and Sakura hits someone who deserves it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys I know it has been a while  
> I’m alive I swear  
> I just took the PSAT and studying for that has taken a lot of time. Anyways, going forward I am hoping to reach updates once a month again, but I cannot make any promises. Just know that I have not abandoned this story.  
> Fact: I absolutely smudged cannon. The events of this chapter in canon took place back when Hinata was 4, (the Hyuuga incident) but now she’s 5-6. If anyone asks, we’ll assume it’s because of something one of our time-travelers in another village did. Blame Ay/Bee.)
> 
> Two chapters in one day, you say? Yes, because I may have forgotten to post chapter 5 about four weeks ago. Oops.

o – o – o – o

Chapter 6

_In which they have an ultra-secret clubhouse, and Sakura tries to hit a bitch_

o – o – o – o

Timeline: Alpha

Location: Konoha Marketplace

POV: Tamaki

o – o – o – o

The day the village was destroyed, Tamaki went out for breakfast with Kiba. She'd been planning this for a while; Breakfast and then a walk in the park to a cat shelter, where they would volunteer for a couple of hours, and then she would ask him to move in together. However, the world had… other plans. Their food was just arriving when the first explosion went off, sounding from the direction of the older clan compounds.

"Kiba?" Tamaki asked her boyfriend hesitantly, "What's going on?"

"I don't know." He admitted, standing up. "But I'm going to go find out." He leaned forward and kissed her, his lips lingering against hers a little longer than necessary, but still gentle. "With me, Akamaru!" Kiba called, and then the two took to the rooftops. Tamaki followed him with her eyes as he ran away until she couldn't see him anymore, and even then, she kept watching that direction for a little longer. Finally, she tore her eyes away and went back to her food. It was good, but not good enough to hold her attention from the worry that was filling her mind, especially as the second and third rounds of explosions went off.

Instead of eating, Tamaki watched as teams of Shinobi ran at full speeds back and forth down the main road the restaurant spilled out onto. She had never seen this many shinobi mobilized at once, but Tamaki imagined that this was what it looked like when they had all headed out to war so many years ago.

With a bang, another round of explosives fired off. This one shook the table, and Tamaki clutched her ears as the sound of a large number of glasses and plates fell off of tables and hit the ground, shattering on impact. She looked up and saw that the most recent explosion had happened right by the front of the restaurant, at a bridge three storefronts down to the right. Tamaki could only watch in horror as the bridge's supports gave way, and it plummeted towards the ground, the building-sized chunks of concrete landing on and crushing a pair of 4-man genin teams.

Before she even realized what she was doing, Tamaki's feet were moving towards the rubble. A handful of other civilians were there, and together they began trying to shift through the rubble to find the kids who were underneath. She reached forward to move a clump when her hand brushed against something paper. Confused, Tamaki pulled on what she felt and then stared in shock at the active paper-bomb that was about to detonate in her hand.

"Get down!" She cried, and then she curled around it to shield the other civilians from the blast. As it went off, she could have sworn she felt Kiba's kiss on her lips one last time, and then nothing.

o – o – o – o

Timeline: Beta

Location: Fire Country Forest

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 3 months, 10 days

POV: Kiba

o – o – o – o

Dog leaped from tree branch to tree branch, his cloak fluttering around his legs, even as his traditional long jacket was beneath it. Aka was by his side, matching him, step for step They moved at a slow enough pace for the small team of genin who trailed behind them to keep up. The team was covered in cuts and bruises from the mercenary who had attacked them after they had been separated from their Jounin-sensei. The missing sensei had managed to call the 13, and Dog and Beetle had answered the call. Dog had agreed to guide the beat-up 13-year-olds back to the village while beetle went to find the adult shinobi, a member of the Konoha clans.

They leaped down from the treetops to the road as the village came into view. Dog raised a hand, and the three genin slowed to a halt right away.

"Alright. When you get back to the village, you three are going to go straight to the hospital and checked out, ok? I'm going to handle the paperwork and the incident report, although the Hokage might stop by to ask a handful of questions after I'm done." Dog looked back at them as Aka scurried ahead – He was carrying the paperwork that Kotetsu and Izumo would need to file upon their return. "Is there anything else you need?" Dog asked as the four humans followed Aka towards the gate.

"Um… Dog-san? Is… is Sensei going to be ok?" The shorter of the two boys asks. Dog sometimes wishes he was like Naruto and could have blind faith in a shinobi he'd never met, but he wasn't. Dog was (mostly) a realist. An impulsive realist, but one all the same. (It was hard not to be one after knowing Beetle this long.)

"I don't know kid. I don't know enough about what happened. But I do know that if there is anything that can be done, Beetle will do it. He's one of the best there is." Dog had no problem having faith in Beetle, however. The genin with him gave a hesitant nod, relief blooming across their faces.

"Thank you so much, Dog-san." The kunoichi added as they passed through the village gates. Kiba stumbled a little as he reconnected to the mental link, his mind's eye showing him Tenten and Sai making quiet discussion. Dog refocused on the genin; it didn't look like it was urgent that he talk to the others. The three smaller humans were waving goodbye, the smaller boy petting Aka one last time as he did so.

"Bye! Make sure you get checked out at the hospital, or I'll set Aka on you!" Hinata had given the name Aka to the form the ninja hound took when Dog wore his mask, for ease of hiding identities. Dog waved to the genin before leaping to the rooftops, Aka on his tail.

o – o – o – o

Location: Konoha Mission Room

o – o – o – o

Dog turned in his incident report and the kid's mission report into one of the shinobi at the missions desk, (and older chunin the Inuzuka didn't recognize), and was getting ready to leave, when a familiar flash of purple filled up the mental link. Aka gave a shrill bark. (They call!)

"I hear you boy." Dog turned from where he had been heading to a window, and instead, he made a beeline to the couches the former Team 10 had installed in the corner of the missions room. Dog plopped down into a seat, and Aka sat next to him with his big, white nose in Dog's lap, and together they fell into the link.

_"You're late, dog breath."_ Ino greeted him. Kiba snorted.

_"I had to find somewhere to sit, was in the middle of turning in a mission report."_ Sakura perked up when she heard Kiba speak.

_"Did you find the missing genin team?"_ The pinkette asked.

_"I found the genin, but Shino is still out looking for their Sensei. It was looking like their attackers grabbed him after separating him from the genin._ " A wince went around the assembled time travelers and Neji. Kiba cast a look around, it looked like everyone except Shino was present for the night's check-in.

_"Which team was it?"_ Naruto asked, a bead of concern on his face. Kiba could tell that even if no one in this time like the guy, he still thought like a Hokage, and cared about each and every resident of Konoha.

_"Last year's Team 5."_ Tenten chimed in.

_"Their Sensei is a Hyuuga!"_ Hinata gave a little surprised gasp. Little Neji, who was sitting by her side, pinched his face in confusion and concern.

_"He's a branch house member though, right? So, he has the seal, they won't be able to take his eyes."_ The younger boy responds.

_"Yes, but it's worrying all the same. He's our clansman, and now he's missing in action."_ A quiet hush fell over the assembled team after that, until Neji gave a small twitch of aborted movement.

_"My father is calling me. Are we meeting up after class tomorrow?"_ Neji had nowhere near enough chakra for the kage bushin that the others would send to class when they had somewhere else to be. Out of the corner of his eye, Kiba saw Shika's brow pitch in the way that meant he realized something, and he settled his hands into the O-shape that always meant he was deep in thought.

_"Not tomorrow Neji. I suspect we'll be occupied with a surprise high classification mission. Hinata will fill you in tomorrow."_ Shika cut in. He got a variety of confused looks but nodded agreement anyways. They had developed the classification system as a way to mark the missions they went on by the effect they would have on the world. All the high classification mission had been laid out at the beginning – they were the moments remembered from prior lives. All of them knew for a fact that there wasn't one coming, and it shouldn't be possible for one to be a surprise. Those were saved for the ones that were the result of a Konoha shinobi triggering the S.O.S. seal that they had slipped the Sandaime to give to all shinobi. Surprise missions went hand in hand with simple rescue missions. Kiba set one more confused look at Shika, but he was caught back up in his thoughts.

_"Yosh! We shall rejoin our springtimes of youth for dinner in two days!"_ Lee explained passionately at Neji, who promptly vanished with a quick pop. (Me too buddy, me too, Kiba agreed. Lee was scary.)

_"What's going on, Shika?"_ Sakura turned a concerned look on the ponytailed boy.

_"It's deeply concerning that a Hyuuga, who knows their way around the compound, vanished the day before the Jounin commander from Kumo is escorting their Daimyo into the city, given the Hyuuga incident before?"_ The Nara asked, and concerned looks were shared by everyone present. Akamaru gave a concerned whimper (but… Neji nice) at the attitude in the room, so Kiba reached forward and scratched him behind the ears gently.

_"I don't know Shika. Ay promised us that he would handle it when Sasuke sent a hawk to him with a message."_ Chouji chimed in.

_"He said he would try, but… what if he didn't know? The Raikage always denied the attempt on the Byakugan, what if the Jounin Commander did it without telling anyone first?"_

_"That would be… horrible."_ Sakura stated, breaking the disturbed silence that had settled following that statement.

_"But it would make sense. Man."_ Kiba smacked himself in the face, dragging his hand up through his hair. _"That would be just our luck."_

_"Arf!"_ (Yup!) Akamaru added his two cents.

_"We should meet tonight then,"_ Sasuke added.

_"I'll see you then, cat face."_ Kiba bared his teeth at the Uchiha.

_"I'll see you then, cat face."_ Kiba bared his teeth at the Uchiha.

_"I'll bash your face in, dog butt."_ Sasuke retorted calmly. They both dropped out of the link at the same time, a sigh of _boys_ following them out.

"Bark!" (Really, cat face?)

"I was thinking on my feet buddy. Cut me some slack."

o – o – o – o

Location: Kiba's Room, Inuzuka Compound

o – o – o – o

Kiba lay in bed, and Akamaru was in his basket, snoring softly. His mother sat in the chair next to him, humming softly. Kiba was doing his absolute best to pretend to be asleep. He was having minimal luck, however, and pretty soon he was going to be late to meet the others. Normally his mother let Hana put him to bed, but he had been lost in thought and quiet over dinner, so Kiba's mother had decided he was feeling sick.

"I'll be right back, baby." Tsume stood up, and Kiba had to hold back his crow of joy.

"I'm strong mom, I'll be fine!" Kiba sat up, balling his hands up into fists in front of his face. His mom let out a bark of laughter and left the room. Fast as he could, Kiba made a pair of kage bushin, one of whom slid into bed pretending to be him, the other one transforming into him. Kiba and his snow-white dog shot out the window onto the Inuzuka compound roof, Akamaru having grabbed a bag from under Kiba's bed while the boy had been forming clones.

Kiba heard his mother come in as he pulled a porcelain white mask from the bag and put the dog mask on. He flicked his hands through a familiar set of handsigns, as Akamaru leaned into his side. With a puff of smoke, Dog felt himself transform into his larger, equally familiar adult body. He pulled a black coat from the bag, swinging it over the clothing he had chosen to picture his adult body in. For the moment, Dog was only using a henge to become an adult rather than the usual Jutsu that rewinds time in their bodies back to their original timeline, to their peak bodies from their late 20s and 30s.

Dog wasn't Naruto either; his chakra was limited, and he didn't have an anchor with him, which even Naruto had to use to make a transformation last more than a couple of seconds. Dog tucked Akamaru into the front of his coat, as it was possible to manipulate the time of the dog, but a henge was beyond Akamaru's ability.

Once Akamaru was secure, Dog slid the window shut and took off into the night, running across the rooftop of the compound, using a little bit of chakra to hide the sounds of his footsteps. Dog finally came to a stop on the roof of the cipher corps' building, the closest administrative building to his clan's compound. Creeping across the round roof, Dog found the loose tile he was looking for, and carefully slid it to the left.

Revealed under the tile was a single three-pronged kunai. The hilt was wound in a sealing cloth, only a single Kanji visible; the kanji for home. However, Dog knew that if he unrolled the sealing paper, he would find several meters worth of seal work done in Naruto's careful hand, linking this kunai to a matching 3 pronged 'out' kunai, in a home and out pair.

Dog ran his chakra through the kunai, and then had just enough time to slide the tile back in place before Naruto's altered Hirashin activated, a short pulling feeling and then Dog was, in an instant, somewhere else.

"You're late, dog breath!" Ino called from a table in the center of the big open room Dog was in. Dog stood on a long narrow wooden platform that ran around the room, each and every one of the 'out' kunai mounted into the wall there. There was no other way out of the room, or in without a 'home' kunai. From the second-floor wooden platform, you could see the large colorful lounge on the first floor. The walls were all the same stone as the mountain their second home was built into but were covered in roof-to-floor fabric drapes in a wide variety of purples and greens and whites.

"Coming!" Dog called down as he released his Henge, slipping his mask and coat onto a side table as he hurries down the stairs to where the others were. Shikamaru was lying on a couch to the left of the table, and Chouji was opposite him. Lee sat in a green satin chair opposite the couch, a low table between them. Ino, Sakura and Hinata were at the picnic table in the center of the room that they definitely hadn't stolen from a park. (They had totally stolen a picnic table from the park) Naruto and Sasuke had paper open, and Sai was pulling a map of the Hyuuga compound from the bookcase under the stairs.

"So, if we lead him here, then there will be a pair of Kumo witnesses, right?" Naruto points at a spot on the map – a restaurant by the Hyuuga Compound.

"Yeah, Danzo mentioned the diplomats were eating there late tonight," Sai called over.

"Fuck Danzo!" Ino called from the other end of the table as she stood up and headed to the kitchen in the corner. "Anyone else want a coffee?" A chorus of agreements. Kiba plopped down next to Hinata and pulled a list of Uchiha Police Patrols for the week closer to himself.

o – o – o – o

Location: Konoha Academy

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 3 months, 11 days

POV: Sakura

o – o – o – o

Sakura could barely sit still as she sat in class at the academy. She was taping a pen against her desk, glaring at Ami, who was sitting next to Sasuke. The bluenette let out a little gasp and dropped her pen, then picked it up while shuffling closer to Sasuke. Sakura barely restrained a growl.

_"Green's not your color, Sakura,"_ Chouji commented lightheartedly.

_"Yosh, Sakura, jealousy is hardly youthful!"_ Lee added telepathically, despite physically being in another classroom entirely. Sakura barely restrained rolling her eyes physically but did indulge it inside the link. After doing so, she plastered her best silly childish pout on her face.

_"But Ami is all over him! She's practically all over him!"_

_"If she gets any closer, I'll break her hand, love?"_ Sasuke proposed.

_"Sasuke no!"_ Naruto exclaimed.

_Sasuke yes."_ Sakura responded.

_"Sasuke no,"_ Naruto repeated.

_"Sasuke so very yes,"_ Sakura called coyly to her husband.

_"Hn,"_ Sasuke grunted.

" _Team 7 in a nutshell, folks,"_ Ino added, and giggles erupted across the link. Even Sai snorted. Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura caught Iruka stop writing and head back to his desk as Ino mumbled something which sent Kiba, with his stronger hearing into a mild rage.

" _Get 'em, boy!"_ He howled, and Akamaru launched himself at Sasuke, nocking the Uchiha's adult form back, barking loudly. Sakura refocused on the real world just in time to see Iruka hold up a sheet of paper marked 'quiz' at the top.

" _Everyone! Quiz positions!"_ Sakura called, and watched as a very select group of her classmates showed signs of attention. Sai snorted again.

" _Hag, that still sounds ridiculous."_

" _No one asked you, weirdo."_ Kiba cut back in. The pinkette rolled her eyes.

" _Boys."_ She cracked her knuckles. They both sat up, and Sakura refocused on reality and began filling in the quiz. It was a history quiz, one that once upon a time would have been difficult.

|a| Name two members of a genin team trained by Tobirama Senju.

Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo.

Down the list Sakura went, filling in all 26 problems about which famous shinobi had trained who, and who was whose teammate.

" _Oi! Smart people and History nerds. Who trained the White Fang for problem K?"_ Kiba calls into the link.

" _Danzo,"_ Sai calls back cheerfully.

" _Fuck him!"_ Ino adds.

" _Naruto, Satami got 9 problems wrong,"_ Shikamaru commented lazily.

" _Oh no, my poor grade,"_ Naruto whined, even as Sakura saw him start to fill in answers. The pinkette filled in her final answer and raised her hand to signal to Iruka-sensei she was done so he could come and collect her test.

"I'm sure you did a great job, Sakura. Why don't you go join the other kids who had finished outside for lunch?" Iruka-sensei picked up the paper off the desk, and hurried out the door, grabbing her bento on the way. She quickly found a spot to sit in a corner of the yard, waving Shikamaru over to where she was opening her bento. They were tucked out to a side, out of most of their classmate's view. Shikamaru wordlessly plopped down on the ground next to her.

" _Alright. One quiz with ten problems wrong. Coming right up!"_ Naruto called in a tone of voice right between excitement and a groan that only he could have pulled off.

" _I wonder why Iruka-sensei hasn't said anything about your and Satami's scores?"_ Chouji wondered aloud.

" _Because I'm awes-"_

" _It's so disappointing, I prepared all sorts of alibis for you too."_ Ino cut the blonde off with a sigh, as Tenten popped up in the link, Neji on her heels.

" _Ino's preparing alibis? Uh oh, chaos is coming."_ Tenten chirped.

" _Yes, it could be most unyouthful, Ino!"_ Lee added, despite knowing exactly what was going on. The ponytailed girl gave quite a pout. Neji rolled his eyes.

" _Lee filled me in on what you guys discussed last night. Is there anything you need me to do tonight?"_ The Hyuuga boy asked, and Sakura felt a small pang of regret that at seven, Neji had outgrown the point in his life where he called them all nii-san and nee-san. However, Neji still had to miss the later planning sessions because he was actually biologically 7, and still required a full 10 hours of sleep, rather than the 4-6 the time travelers could function on. (Sakura theorized that since their chakra was so tied to their physical energies, the excess chakra their younger bodies could not process as chakra was concerted to physical energy, replacing the need for most sleep, even in child bodies, and also progressing their fine motor control.) Lee had taken to filling Neji in on what he had missed.

" _I think we're covered, but thanks!"_ Chouji responded with an easy grin.

" _Keep your creepy eyed relatives busy,"_ Sasuke suggested to Neji who made faces at the Uchiha.

" _I'd say they're both creepy."_ Ino chimed in, practically smelling the chaos.

" _Yeah! Who are you to be so high and mighty, red eyes? There's nothing creepy about Hinata's eyes!"_ Kiba immediately jumped to take Ino's bait.

" _An Uchiha_." Sasuke cut back in.

" _So, you're insane then?"_ Sai concluded, an innocent smile on his face. Chouji sent a look back at Sakura and Shikamaru from where he had joined them in the real world.

"Clan rivalries." Shikamaru shrugged in real life as his avatar in the link flickered as his focus flashed back and forth rapidly, a technique Neji had invented when he started the academy.

Sakura cracked her link-knuckles menacingly.

o – o – o – o

Location: Hyuuga Compound

o – o – o – o

Perched in a tree, Sakura pressed the porcelain slug mask against her adult face, the cloak already hanging down and around her adult face, the cloak already hanging down and around her shoulders since before the pinkette had activated the space-time jutsu. She cast her eyes over the Hyuuga compound, legs tensed to move in an instant.

"Snake, you ready?" Slug asked the man by her side. He grunted. "Hawk?" She asked the man on the branch ahead of her.

"Ready whenever." He responded. There was a moment of silence between all, filled only by the sounds of the wind blowing the leaves around them, two sets of black hair and one of pink rustling with it as well. Their silence was broken after a moment when a single scream rang out, but they still held their positions. However, moments later, the bark of a dog filled the night air. That's the signal, thought Slug as she and Snake took off into the air, Hawk drawing a pot of ink from inside his cloak.

Slug ran across the rooftops, Snake by her side until she spotted another shinobi ahead of her. She recognized him right away – the Jounin commander of Kumo. In his arm was Hinata, who flashed Slug a peace sign around the back of her 'captor'.

"Stop!" Snake called out. When the man predictably did not stop, Slug charged a fish of chakra and ducked down as Snake leaped at the man, hurtling back down at him. The Kumo-nin raised a kunai, but then at the last-minute Snake activated his rinnegan, swapping Slug into his position. She was already ducking, so the kunai thrown by her enemy flew right over her head, and she focused on the tiles of the roof under his feet.

"Chaaa!" Slug let out a war cry, smashing her fist against the roof, exploding it everywhere, forcing the kidnapper to the ground. Out of the corner of her eye, Slug saw an ink splatter against a wall, next to where a sharp tile piece had landed. She made a mental note to apologize to Hawk and then shot back out into the street to continue chasing the Kumo-nin.

Slug ran after him through the streets, watching as the civilians were moved out of the way by Deer and Pixie's jutsus, shadows pulling some back out of Slug's sight, others moving out of the way as if they lost control of their own bodies. Slug's foe went to turn down an alley but was stopped when he spotted something in the darkness. Slug was pretty sure it was another one of Hawk's ink lions, but she couldn't be sure. They guarded every cross street and alley, so the chances were high she was right. She could hear the footsteps of Snake across the tile as well, watching for anything they didn't plan for.

Slug followed just after the Kumo-nin as he broke into a large plaza which they had evacuated long ago, when a flurry of sharp, pointed objects (Largely kunai, shuriken, and senbon, but there were several Slug was unfamiliar with as well) flew down from above created a box around him, forcing him to stop in his tracks or be impaled. Impressive aim Panda, Slug mentally noted. Not that she should be surprised, Panda never seemed to miss, but all the same, it remained impressive. From there, Butterfly's expanded fist, (now the size of a large water tank) grabbed the target as Turtle swept by, snatching Hinata from her captor's grasp.

Moments after that, the Uchiha police and the ANBU came pouring into the plaza, and in response to everyone present but Turtle and Butterfly vanished into the darkness of night in their own village. Slug trusted her teammates to hand it from here, and she knew the others felt the same way.

o – o – o – o

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> o – o – o – o   
> Hey guys. I’m not dead, I swear.  
> I don’t have anything else to say here.  
> o – o – o – o   
> Dictionary of Japanese:  
> -Taicho (Honorific): Captain  
> -Sama (Honorific): Used for people you respect, usually translated to 'Lord' or 'Lady'  
> -Kun (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger boys or boys you are close with.  
> -Chan (Honorific): An affectionate title, usually used for younger girls or girls you are close with, connected with being cute.  
> -Nee (Honorific): Used for girls who you view as an adopted/actual big sister  
> -Nii (Honorific): Used for boys who you view as an adopted/actual big brother  
> Anata: Sakura's nickname for Sasuke, often translated to "love"  
> Nikko: Sunshine  
> Taki: Waterfall  
> Kami: G-d  
> Kanji: A form of Japanese written characters  
> Dango: Sweet dumplings  
> Dobe: A rude nickname, most often translated to 'Dead Last'  
> Mendokusē: Shikamaru's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated either as 'troublesome' or 'what a drag'  
> Yosh: A term used mostly by Gai Lee, just a general affirmative (yes, alright, etc)  
> Dattebayo: Naruto's catchphrase, no direct translation but often translated to 'believe it' or 'you know'  
> Kojin-Tekina Jukin Jutsu: Personal Time Jutsu  
> Jyuken: Gentle Fist  
> Kaiten: Rotation  
> Genjutsu: Illusion Jutsu  
> Fuinjutsu: Sealing Jutsu  
> Doujutsu: Visual/Ocular Jutsu  
> Shodaime: First (Hokage implied)  
> Sandaime: Third (The Hokage part is implied  
> Yondaime: Fourth (Hokage implied)  
> Rokudaime: Sixth (Hokage implied)  
> Ninadaime: Seventh (Hokage Implied)  
> Gokage: Organization of the 5 kage  
> Tou-san: Male parent, more formal than 'Daddy' but less than 'Dad'  
> Nee-chan: older sister  
> Imotou: Younger Sister  
> Chichue: Father  
> Kaa-san: Female parent, least formal  
> o – o – o – o   
> Timeline: Beta  
> Location: Fire Country Forest  
> Naruto's Age: 6 years, 9 months, 13 days  
> POV: Sai


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Which Sai’s Date is also a Stakeout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may notice that this story feature less and less Japanese – in fact someday I hope to go back and edit a lot of it out. If it isn’t a jutsu, proper noun, or honorific, it honestly doesn’t have to be there. It’s a symptom of the writing of a younger writer, and I think my writing suffers for it.

o - o - o - o

Timeline: Beta

Location: Hokage’s Office

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 9 months, 13 days

POV: Sai

o – o – o – o

Sai was in the Hokage’s office. This wasn’t all that an uncommon occurrence except that he was there as a root shinobi rather than as Sai or Hark. He was there as Danzo’s guard. In a terribly not shocking way, Danzo was there to argue with the third Hokage. The topic of the day? The Thirteen.

“Sarutobi, you have to be reasonable. Unless we know who they are, we can not be sure none of them are with Orochimaru.” Danzo kept circling around the office, as though this helped to prove his point, and had ben the whole time they had been planning the raid on Orochimaru’s lab. Sai suppressed an eyeroll.

“Danzo, it was Tiger herself who rescued the young clan members & academy students who were able to provide the information revealing him as a traitor, and Beetle who accompanied the ANBU who investigated the claim.” The Sandaime gave a long sigh.

“Sarutobi, how did she know where to look for those kids? Besides, it could have been a ruse to trick us into lowering out guard.” Danzo continued to press. Sai barely resisted the instinct to react, Danzo had been repeating his small collection of points over and over again. Sarutobi plucked his pipe from the ashtray, drew a long breath in, shifted his pipe, and exhaled the smoke in a long single breath.

The Hokage’s face was tired, and his shoulders slumped down. In a previous life, Sai had never met the man, so he had been struck by how much weariness the man’s eyes betrayed. They were very still speckled with compassion, but there was no excitement in them, and the spark of intelligence the man was once known for been clouded over. To the root boy, the Hokage’s eyes always looked just about ready to cry whenever he saw them. (Although Danzo’s presence probably contributed to it as well.)

The village leader gave a long sigh, and drew a pen from a case, dipping it in the inkpot and beginning to paint streaks across the paper on his desk.

“Alright Danzo. I will instruct them not to interfere in them capture of Orochimaru but I will place them at predetermined distances to assist with the ANBU perimeter if they are needed.” Danzo looked ready to interrupt, but Hiruzen raised a single hand. “I will order them to step in only if they are asked to, and not t bring the whole team, only a small sub-team of 3 shinobi. Fair?” Sai can’t help but think Danzo looks a lot like a shark about to eat an unsuspecting creature.

“Two. A single team of two.” Danzo orders the Sandaime. The man gives a resigned huff of smoke from his pipe, and agrees.

o – o – o – o

Location: Root’s Hideout Under + Outside Konoha

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 9 months, 15 days

o – o – o – o

Sai returns to his small quarters after a 48 hour shift on Danzo’s guard (Danzo had decided that he was going to be on the long term guard some day after he had caught Sai of guard creating bigger and bigger ink creatures out of boredom), but finds the room empty. The wooden box of a space has a single window t the outside, from which moonlight cuts through the night’s darkness outside. There’s no clockm but Sai is sure that it’s sure the time is the earliest hours of the night. Im the corner of the room, both of the futons are dusty and empty, unslept in. Shin must still be hour on a mission, then.

Sai turns the lock on the door until the deadbolt clicks into place, and then he drops onto his futon, ignoring the little cloud of dust that rises up in response. Taking a deep breath, he sends a small portion of his consousness to the mental link. It’s a technique that Sai developed himself on the root torture-resistence technique. It wasn’t of any use to the others, but it gace Sai something to take his mind off of dull, day-long training sessions.

Noting that all the others were gone, asleep probably, Sai rose from where he was sitting, and crossed the room to the loose floorboard Sai had discovered a year and a half ago rested. Shifting the leather sketchbook on top of it, Sai pried the loose wood up.

Inside the cavity in the floor, Sai had taken to stashing his current project. He pulled out a sewing needle and a plain wooden box. Undoing the clasp, he opened the chest and pulled out a square of cream cotton fabric. Underneath were more than 40 colors of floss + thread.

Sai selected a shade of purple and threaded it through a small metal needle, tying a not at the end of the string. Pulling the square of fabric from the box, Sai unfolded it, revealing a sketch of an iris flower. Sai passed the needle through the cloth and set to work on the needlepoint for his wife.

o – o – o – o

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 9 months, 17 days

o – o – o – o

Shin returned about a day and half later, with bags under and yet another mission scroll under his arm.

“Another? Already? But you just got back, you look dead on your feet.” Sai called to his brother from where he sat on the mat, filling in a needlepoint petal with a lavender thread. Shin shook his head, and Sai absently noted his blue-gray hair was caked with mud. It almost looked dark brown in the dim light.

“No – Danzo sent this one for you, little brother.” Sai’s head whipped up in surprise at that. As a member of Danzo’s personal guard, Danzo almost never assigned him missions, preferring to keep him near if he chose to travel anywhere. Shin held out the scroll, and Sai took it from him.

“I already ate, but there should be some stew left over.” Sai chose to say instead of commenting on how strange this whole thing was, even as he broke the seal on the mission scroll. Shin nodded in response, even as he swayed a little on the spot.

“Thanks, but I think I’m going to take a nap first. See you when you get back.” The lighter-haired boy dropped his traveling pack to the left of the door, letting out a long yawn as he headed across the room to collapse on his futon, still covered in the mission dirt. A small smile crossed Sai’s face, as his wife’s voice rang out his the back of his mind scolding him for getting dirt and dust on their bed, and I swear to god Sai, if you get any more mud on our nice new sheets, you will spend the next decade sleeping on the couch. Sai filed the thought away, reshaping an emotionless mask as he scooped his traveling pack up onto his back. It was a small, worn grey thing, far to big for his 7-year-old body, really. Into the bag his packed a spare change of clothes, an ink brush, his jutsu scroll, and the small box with his needlepoint in it.

Sai clipped his kunai pouch (one of the few things remaining from another life – a gift from Shikamaru for his wedding anniversary) to his belt, and then he carefully place a porcelain mask, this one with a hawk on it, wrapped in a black cloak into his pack, a time anchor sealed inside the bundle as well. He slipped the pack over his shoulder, and cast one look over his shoulder at his brother, now passed out asleep, spread out all over the futon. Sai answered Danzo’s summons.

o – o – o – o

Location: Danzo’s Hidden Meeting Chamber, Root Hideout Tunnels Under Konoha

o – o – o – o

Sai arrived in Danzo’s dark meeting hall to find the older man already waiting there. His four on duty guards immediately stepped into an aggressive stance around the elder. Sai, used to this routine by now, produced the summons and knelt. One of the guards, (Katia, Sai’s mind supplied, used that dammed bunny mask.) presented the scroll to Danzo. The man slowly turned to face Sai.

“Welcome.” He stated, but his voice was cold.

“Danzo-sama.” The tone of respect was hard to dreg up for the man who had killed his brother in another life, but Sai had been pulling it up for years now, and it was second nature to do now.

“There is to be a raid on Orochimaru’s hideout tomorrow. Prevent the 13 from interfering. Hiruzen has permitted two members to be there. Prevent that number from rising.” It was all Sai could do to keep from expressing his amusement. He simply nodded, not trusting himself to keep his voice flat. The idea that only one root shinobi was enough to stop the 13 was laughable, even if he had sent literally anyone with intentions to do so. “Afterwords, you will follow Kinoe. Tail him and assist him from the shadows. Be prepared to report to me on how he does, this is his first mission away from my guard.” Sai forced himself to take a deep breath.

“Understood.” Sai was going to enjoy at least half of this – not so much spying on Kinoe. Sai had done a handful of guard shifts alongside him, and despite his best efforts to the contrary, he kind of liked the teen. He had done a couple of guard shifts with him, and while he had yet to exchange more than just the simplest of greetings, the teen had never quite managed to be the perfect image of stillness that the other root guards did. It made a 50-hour guard shift infinitely more exciting. He was admittedly curious as to what jutsu Kinoe practiced, but other than that reporting on the teen was going to suck.

o – o – o – o

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 9 months, 18 days

Location: Senata Park, North Konoha

o – o – o – o

Sai sat on a bench in the park. He was in his adult body, thanks to the time anchor which hung from a belt around his waist. The cream cloth was in his palm again, and the needle ran in and out of the fabric as he waited for his partner to arrive. Sustaining the adult form for this was probably a waste of Chakra, but he didn’t want to risk someone reporting a root agent hanging around a park to Danzo.

To Sai’s left, there was a splashing sound, and the sound of rubber. Sai stuck his hand out, catching the ball in mid-air, feeling the warm, gooey mud drip down his arm. He turned to see whose ball he had, and then was barely able to catch the second one before it hit him in the face, after it silently snuck up on him. Sai felt mud splatter across his face and top, but his only thought was to throw a leg over his needlepoint.

“Mister! I’m real sorry, but that was super cool! Are you a shinobi?” A young girl with two cones of curly brown hair messily tied up behind her head spoke.

“I- yes. I am.” He responded, before casting his eyes around. Where was Ino? It’s unlike her to be late. There was a call in the distance, and the little girl’s face morphed into guilt.

“I gotta go, mister. I was nice to meet you!” Sai handed the rubber balls back to her, but she only took the blue one, leaving the white one in his hand. “Keep the Princess Yuki ball. You can give it to me when you teach me your shinobi trick!” Before Sai could respond, she turned and dashed away, leaving Sai blinking in surprise, a white rubber ball still in his hand.

_“I have to say, Sexy, mud is a good look for you!”_ Ino’s laughter filled Sai’s head.

_“Thank you, Gorgeous.”_ He responded easily, and his revenge was the red blush that filled her face, and the little stutter of thanks that never stopped making Sai’s heart give a little flutter. He cast his eyes around the park again, trying to spot his wife. She was hiding her chakra.

_“You won’t find me this time!”_ Her voice was playful, but there was a challenge barely hidden underneath.

_“I highly doubt that.”_ He responded. _“I will always find you because I love you.”_

_“Please, for my sanity, get a room.”_ Uchiha’s voice fills the link, and Sai spins around to see him appearing besides him.

_“What brings you here, Uchiha?”_ Sai asked.

_“Regretting my choices.”_ He deadpanned back, which sent Ino into a fit of giggle. Sai glared at Uchiha, who, in turn, looked straight back into Sai’s glaring eyes. They started at each other as Ino’s laugh rose like a crescendo of hysteria. After a couple of seconds, it turned into snorts, which turned into coughs.

_“Gorgeous, are you alright?”_ Sai asked, cocking his head to the side, and looking away from Uchiha’s staring contest.

_“Yup-”_ she coughed again, and drew in a deep breath of air (was it air? Did they need to breath in the link? The space didn’t really exist- Sai shelved the question for later) _“Yup, I’m alright.”_

_“Anyways, what did the Sandaime say?”_ Uchiha sent a glare at Ino, even though the question was for Sai. The pale skinned man let out a disappointed sigh.

_“He pretty much gave in to Danzo. We a ‘sanctioned’”_ Sai made air quotes around the word – no one could or would actually give them an order to do or not do anything – _“to send in one pair of shinobi, and I personally have orders from Danzo to assassinate any extras who tag along.”_ Uchiha huffed a sigh, and Ino jumped at Sai.

_“You and I will go together, then! It’s a date!”_ She wrapped around Sai’s midriff. Uchiha raised a single eyebrow.

_“Oh yes, a stakeout of a traitor’s secret lab. How romantic.”_ Sai snaked an arm around his wife midriff, entirely honest in his smirk. She rested her head on his shoulder.

_“Well, I’ll leave you to… your crazy. I’ll let the others know, and we will meet up tonight.”_ Uchiha commented, vanished from the link. As soon as he was gone, Ino grabbed Sai, pulling him into a hungry kiss. Their mouths stayed joined as they both fought for control the kiss, until Sai finally pulled away for air. (Huh – a need for air, even in the non-physical link)

_“What do you say we get out of here and go somewhere private?”_ Ino whispered in Sai’s ear, her warm breath against his neck, sending shivers down his spine. Sai ran his hand through his wife’s ponytail and gave a small smirk.

_“You’re going to have to tell me where you are then, Gorgeous.”_ Sai responded, as he pulled Ino towards himself.

_“… dangit.”_ Ino whispered and buried her face in his neck. _“I’ll meet you there, then.”_ Then she vanished, smirking at Sai.

o – o – o – o

Location: The Konoha Walls

o – o – o – o

Sai followed the ANBU team over the wall in the direction of Orochimaru’s hidden lab. His bag was bouncing a little over his shoulder, and his face was cold with a clay mask pressed against it, sapping the warmth from his body. It wasn’t the familiar hawk mask that he preferred to wear – the one that was part of a set of 13. (Shino had made those with some technique he picked up in Kiri when he took his academy students one time, and as a result they didn’t steal warmth the same way.) This mask was instead modeled after the ones that the ANBU of Suna would wear, having been issued to him by another root soldier.

Sai felt the bark of the tree branches beneath him change from long strips to more rounded shapes suddenly under his steps. The branches around him became thicker. A quick glace up showed that the leaves were round rather than the three-pointed leaves from before. He dropped out of the tree canopy to the floor of the forest. On the ground, Sai slowed down his pace to avoid carelessly stepping on a twig or anything else that could make a sound and give away his position.

He stopped just outside a large clearing, behind one of the large trees along the border. The clearing was swarming with Konoha shinobi, all around a decorated hole in the ground that was unmistakably the entrance to one of Orochimaru’s hide-outs. There was much noise as people moved about the clearing – evidently the element of surprise was not a factor in their plans.

Sai carefully pulled his scroll and brush from his bag, sketching an army of ink mice as he carefully avoided jostling the bush he was hiding within. Adding an ink butterfly, Sai sent his creatures off the page. The mice scurried to the clearing while trying to avoid being seen in groups large enough to draw attention. The butterfly rose straight off the page, hovering in the air before taking off in the opposite direction from the mice.

Suddenly there was a rush of noise and all of the Konoha ANBU leapt back into formations of three. An ink mouse must have dispelled as memories came rushing in, letting him know that the Sandaime’s team had just engaged the snake sannin.

Sai felt a presence behind him approach from the left and pulled out a kunai while spinning to face the figure, only to see Pixie there, the inky butterfly hovering beside her.

“A clever guide, Sai.” She murmured; amusement clear in her tone as she gestured to the butterfly. Her long blonde ponytail shifting over her shoulder and back. Sai promptly popped the butterfly onto her shoulder, getting an ink stain all over her cloak. She sent a glare his way, before dropping down next to him. “My revenge will be swift, honey.” Pixie commented, flicking a little ink back at Sai. He rolled his eyes, pulling the long black cloak out of his travel pack and shifting it over his shoulders. He then swapped his mask, removing the icy cold one given by root for the more familiar hawk one, which rested easily on his face. He wrapped a hand around the three-pronged kunai he had slipped into the pouch at his waist, and activated the True-time jutsu, and felt a wave of fluidity as his body reverted to its adult form.

“Alright. Ready to go whenever you are, Pixie.” Hawk commented.

“Hawk, we move in when Orochimaru appears.” Pixie responded, and the two of them settled in to wait.

o – o – o – o

Timeline: Beta

POV: Ino

Naruto's Age: 6 years, 9 months, 18 days

Location: Konoha Forest, Near Orochimaru’s Experiment Hole


End file.
